Changing Destiny: Rewrite
by Tanglepelt
Summary: The re-written version of my story 'Changing Destiny'. Aoi Coulter is a lonely girl who wants friends. The Akatsuki need information about the success or failure of their goals. When Aoi finds herself in the strange world of ninja and their extraordinary abilities, she crosses paths with the organization. They soon discover that they can surprisingly help each other succeed.
1. Prologue

**EDIT 2012:  
Hello, everyone~ I'm back! Since my writing style has improved, I am editing and re-writing some chapters. This chapter won't be edited very much, since this is just the prologue, but there will be some changes. I will keep the original A/N just because it explains a lot.  
I will say that there will be some MAJOR edits and plot changes in future chapters.  
Also, because of a certain chapter, I had to rework "Tobi"'s entire character. Ugh.  
Enjoy this edited chapter~  
**

Hello there! Welcome to my first Naruto fanfic. I have been working on this prologue for awhile, yet I am still not sure if it is very good. I hope the characters aren't too OOC. *Sigh* I'm my own worst critic, I suppose… Anyways, before I start the story I will warn you that it has an OC. I also warn you that there is language *coughcough, Hidan, coughcough* and violence. This story takes place before they capture the One-Tail. It is a slightly alternate timeline, with Tobi being an honorary member while Sasori is still alive. I will be using Japanese honorifics and village names (ex. Konoha will be used instead of "Hidden Leaf Village", etc.), yet I will call the headbands 'forehead protectors' instead of the Japanese term. I will also use the Japanese spelling of Pein/Pain's name. Oh! I do not own Naruto (Oh, how I wish I did!) Now, on with the story…

Blah, blah, blah: Light Zetsu

**Blah, blah, blah: **Dark Zetsu

* * *

-Prologue-

Pein sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. Every time the entire Akatsuki got together, there was always enough arguing to make the pierced man wish he was deaf. But as annoying as they all—minus Konan—were, he needed them for this particular jutsu. Pein finally opened his eyes to see what all the fuss was about. Deidara and Sasori were having yet another one of their "art debates", while Hidan and Kakuzu were arguing about the importance of money and religion. Kisame was snickering at both arguments while his partner, Itachi, observed silently, looking just annoyed as Pein. Finally, the Akatsuki leader's Rinnegan eyes rested on Zetsu, who was arguing with himself _yet_ _again_, and Tobi, who was childishly poking Deidara. Pein wondered how Tobi—or should he say Uchiha Madara, though he didn't know his real identity for sure—could act so stupidly without driving himself crazy. _He's a damn good actor, _Pein thought.

When the orange-haired man couldn't take any more of the arguments, he took a deep breath and yelled, "QUIET!"

Suddenly, everyone fell silent. When the Akatsuki leader gives you an order, you _follow it without question_. Pein internally smirked and continued. "The reason why I have requested for you all to come here today is because I need all of you for this particular new jutsu to work. This is the first time it is being used, and I want to—"

Pein was cut off by Hidan, who loudly asked, "What fuckin' new jutsu?"

"Yeah," added Deidara, "you never mentioned _that_ when you called us here. What if it doesn't work, un?"

"I don't wanna waste my chakra on something that won't even fuckin' work!" Hidan yelled.

Now Pein was really starting to get pissed off. _No one _talks to him that way, especially not the newest members of the Akatsuki. With a blink of an eye, he was behind Deidara and pinned one of the blond's arms behind his back. He decided to punish the Iwa-nin because Hidan was immortal and masochistic. Deidara, on the other hand, was not. He did not hate the bomber, but in order for the organization to listen to him, he needed to do something a bit dramatic. He pulled the blond's arm harder and hissed, "I'd apologize if you still want to use this arm!"

Deidara pondered this, trying to squirm out of the leader's grip. Pein could see that he was trying to keep the nervousness from showing on his face. _Trying but failing_, he smirked. Despite the younger man's cockiness, he was still intimidated by him, a fact which amused Pein. For emphasis, the pierced man yanked on the blond's arm even more; he could feel it beginning to dislocate from the shoulder. He knew that Deidara felt it too when he grudgingly replied, "Yes, Pein."

"Yes, Pein what?" asked the leader, still gripping Deidara's arm.

"Yes, Pein-_sama_," answered the bomber, spitting out the honorific with obvious distaste.

"Good," answered Pein. Thinking that the leader was going to let go of him, Deidara visibly relaxed. Before the blonde even realized what was happening, Pein had yanked on his arm once more, finally dislocating it. Deidara tried to hide his pain, but let out a small grunt of discomfort.

"Next time, remember who you are speaking to," hissed Pein, harshly pushing him toward his partner. To the untrained eye, Sasori looked apathetic as usual, but Pein caught the tiny glare that was meant for him.

"Wasn't that a little harsh?" asked Zetsu.

"**Maybe, but it was certainly entertaining,**" retorted the plant-man's darker half.

Answering Zetsu's light half, Pein replied, "It might have been, but it got all of you to shut up, didn't it?"

Both halves of Zetsu stopped arguing, while Konan gave him a glare.

Pretending that he was never interrupted, Pein said, "Anyway, as I was saying before, during one of Konan-san's trips into Ame, she found an unusual scroll. When she brought it back to me, we both opened it and saw that it was a jutsu I have never heard of. Apparently, it will bring someone from this or another world who knows the users' futures, as well as their successes and failures. Since we are soon going to hunt the bijuu, I figured we should know if our goal will be achieved. However, this jutsu requires a large amount of chakra, so I need all of you to help me perform it."

Seeing what had just happened to Deidara, nobody wanted to speak out, even though they had many questions. Instead, they just nodded, and Kisame asked, "When do we start?"

"Right now," answered Pein. I will show you the necessary hand signs. Once you have the sequence memorized, we must all perform it at the same time. Afterwards, we must all draw some of our blood and place it in this diagram I drew." Pein pointed to an elaborate design of swirls and circles painted on the floor behind him.

Everyone except Deidara nodded, and Pein took note of this. He knew that Deidara wouldn't defy him again, so he wasn't worried that he wouldn't participate. He made sure everyone could see him as he showed them the sequence of hand signs. He also made sure that Deidara could perform them with his shoulder injured. It was a bit painful, but he could. When everyone was ready, he yelled, "Go!"

Once they all completed the signs, they bit their thumbs and smeared the blood in the design. The diagram began to glow, but when the brightness dimmed, nothing appeared in it.

"Told ya it wouldn't fucking work," Hidan muttered.

"Just wait," said Pein. "It didn't fail. The scroll said that the person would not appear. He will find us."

"And how long is that supposed to take?" asked Sasori. "You know I—"

Pein cut him off. "Yes, yes, we all know you hate waiting!" _What is with him? He doesn't age and has all the time in the world, yet he hates to wait. I'll never understand him._ He continued, "The person should arrive here in about a day or so. Until then, we have to wait. Now that the jutsu is complete, you are all dismissed. But stay in the base. I'll send you out in pairs tomorrow to look for the person."

Everyone was about to walk away when Pein thought of something. "Kakuzu-san, please fix Deidara's arm."

The stitched man nodded, and slightly tilted his head when he heard Deidara's name mentioned without an honorific. However, he didn't say anything; it wasn't in his nature to care. He just motioned for the bomber to follow him to the infirmary.

Once everyone finally left the room, Pein massaged his temples. It was hard work getting everyone to focus, and he was physically and emotionally drained. He hoped the jutsu worked. No, he _needed _for it work. Besides wanting to know the future of the Akatsuki, he also injured Deidara, one of his own, for this. He was sure that the blond wouldn't trust him for a long time, and he didn't want it to be in vain. Yes, being the leader was hard work. He sighed, and then he too left the room, shutting the lights behind him.

* * *

So, what did you think? Was it good? Was it awful? I know Pein seems like a jerk in this, but he has his reasons. Don't hate him, lolz. Chapter One will be posted soon, which will focus on my OC.

This was my first time writing with honorifics; please tell me if I made any errors. I know having no honorific attached after a name means intimacy, but I also heard that it means that a person has no respect for the person he is addressing. I hope this is true, because I wanted to show that Pein was irritated with Deidara at that moment. I know he didn't say much that was offensive, but I wanted Pein to be a very controlling leader who wants everyone to follow his orders. I know it might be OOC, but it fit for this fic. On another note, I have no idea if you can still move your hand with a dislocated shoulder. But this is Naruto for crying out loud! People can summon animals and walk on water! I know that this particular part in the fic might be unrealistic, but I needed everyone to participate in the jutsu.

So anywho, reviews make my day! If you like the story (or want to offer some constructive criticism, but no flames), please review.

**EDIT 2012:**

**So, that was the end of the first edited chapter. I only added some minor details, and changed Pein's personality to make him a bit less jerky. **

**Also, I had a question. Should I keep Deidara's verbal tic as 'un', or should I change it to 'yeah' (since that's what it translates to), or 'hmm'? **

**I hope you enjoyed the chapter! The next one will be posted soon. **


	2. Chapter One

**EDIT 2012:  
I added a scene to this chapter, to add some character to Aoi, but besides that, most of it was kept the same. (I just changed some phrasing to make it sound more like my current writing style.) **

* * *

-Chapter One: The Ordinary and the Extraordinary-

Seventeen-year-old Aoi Coulter sighed as she walked into her high school's cafeteria. She scanned the room for her usual table, only to shake her head when she realized that all the seats were filled. Again. She wasn't surprised at this fact; she didn't like any of the people she sat with. She just ate lunch with them so that she wouldn't have to eat alone. Now that they had found someone to replace her, this was exactly what she had to do. Saving herself from the humiliation of eating alone in the cafeteria, Aoi left the noisy room and walked to the library. This is where she would eat whenever her table was full. The librarians didn't mind; she was quiet and never left a mess.

Aoi quietly unzipped her lunch bag and unpacked her lunch. Today's meal was a turkey and Swiss cheese sandwich, potato chips, and a bottle of water. She spent the first twenty-five minutes of her lunch period eating. Once she was done, she looked at the clock on the wall and saw that she had twenty-five minutes left. Since she had no homework from her previous classes, she pulled her sketchbook out of her bag and flipped it open to an unfinished drawing.

Aoi was an artist, which was one of the reasons she didn't have many friends. Though she was talented at drawing, her school was all about sports and looking attractive. She couldn't care less about sports, and with her straight, neck-length pale brown hair, grey eyes, and short stature, her appearance was more on the average side. On top of that, she still had braces, which made her look younger than she already did. She also loved anime, especially one called _Naruto_, which was another reason people didn't like her. Very few people at her school liked anime; most people thought of it as being stupid and childish.

Aoi sighed again and started to finish shading in her drawing. It was a picture of Akasuna no Sasori, one of her favorite characters from _Naruto_. Instead of drawing him in anime style, she drew him realistically. Her entire sketchbook was filled with realistic portraits of the Akatsuki. She saved Sasori for last because he was her favorite character and she didn't want to mess the drawing up. Once she was finished, she put her sketchbook and pencil case back in her messenger bag. She saw that there were only five minutes left until fifth period was over, so she decided to close her eyes and daydream.

Of course she dreamed about the Akatsuki after just finishing a drawing of one of its members. They were her all-time favorite characters in _Naruto_, even though they were supposed to be the antagonists. Yes, they did kill countless people, but they were also outcasts, just like her. She didn't belong at her school; they didn't belong in their home villages.

Her eyes snapped open when she heard the bell ring. She gathered up her stuff, thanked the librarians, and ran to her next class. Sixth period, as well as seventh and eighth, went by fast, and soon the school day was over. Aoi rushed to her locker, grabbed all her necessary schoolbooks, and literally ran down the hallway.

Once she got outside, she stopped, the cold November weather taking away all her energy. This proved to be unlucky; a group of people approached her, condescending smirks on their faces. Though she didn't know them by name, Aoi knew that they were unpleasant; they messed with her many a time. Gulping, she gripped her sketchbook tighter, holding it to her chest. Because of the weather, she was not in the mood to be picked on; she just wanted to get to her car without any trouble.

Luck didn't seem to be on her side; as soon as she moved, the group circled her closer. Her stomach clenching with suspense, Aoi spoke. "Can I help you?"

The leader, a tall girl with thick blonde hair and a penchant for neon-colored clothing stepped forward until she was barely a foot away from Aoi. "Don't be rude; I thought you'd like some help carrying that heavy bag and sketchbook."

That seemed to be the cue for one of her friends, a gangly boy with scraggly black hair, to lunge forward and pull Aoi's bag off her shoulder. This caused the shorter girl to shift her sketchbook to one hand while the other allowed the boy to take the bag and throw it next to his feet. Hurting her arm wasn't worth losing a couple of textbooks and notes. While she was distracted, Neon Puke (Aoi nearly snickered when the nickname popped into her head) ripped the sketchbook out of her grasp.

Now Aoi panicked. Her drawings were precious to her; if they somehow got damaged, she didn't think she'd be able to create them exactly the same as she did before. "Give it back!"

"Oh come on, I just want to see your work; it can't be as good as the art teachers say." The taller girl carelessly flipped through the book, and Aoi's stomach clenched. When she stopped on a particular page, the brunette's heart sank.

"If you were trying to draw me, you did a hell of an awful job. My makeup looks so much better, and I wouldn't wear that tacky bathrobe."

"It's a cloak!" Aoi found herself saying, trying to reach for the book. "And that's not supposed to be you!" _Deidara looks so much better than you, anyway. _

"Don't deny it; of course it's me. I bet this is one of your strange fetishes, am I right? I've never seen you with a guy, nor have you seemed interested in any, so you must swing the other way. And now you're _drawing _me? You're such a freak. Ugh, this is embarrassing!"

Neon Puke stepped out of Aoi's range and held the sketchbook over her head while she used her free hand to rifle through her purse. Once she found what she was looking for, she smirked. As soon as Aoi got a glimpse of what she was holding, her heart nearly stopped. The blonde flicked a lighter, smirking. She held it under the sketchbook, laughing when the page started to singe.

At that moment, Aoi saw red. She was tired of being picked on, but she took it without a complaint, and without fighting back. Until now, that is. Her art was her life; she would not tolerate it being messed with. Narrowing her eyes, she ran at Neon Puke, pushing her as harshly as she could. She grabbed the sketchbook while the taller girl was surprised and held it tightly to her chest.

Neon Puke looked like she wanted to punch Aoi, but when she looked around, she saw that a teacher was in their line of sight. Shaking her head, she smirked again. "I hate to cut this short, but I don't want detention. See you around, freak." She nodded, and she and her friends walked away, disappearing into the sea of students and cars.

Shakingly grabbing her bag, Aoi willed herself not to cry, at least not until she reached her car. Forcing a stoic expression on her face, she walked, counting her steps to distract her. It wasn't long before she reached her destination, but by the time she got there, her suppressed tears had subsided into a numb pit in her stomach.

Once she got home, she walked up the stairs to her room and flopped onto the bed, the horrible feeling returning. She pulled her sketchbook out of her bag, terrified of how much it was damaged. Luckily, all her drawings seemed to be intact, minus some singing on the bottom of the Deidara one. _I can pass that off as an intentional effect. _Relieved that her artwork was unharmed, Aoi hugged the book to her chest. A few tears escaped from her eyes, but she wiped them away quickly. Now that everything was all right, at least for the moment, she closed her eyes, ready to relax. All she wanted to do now was watch _Naruto_, and since it was Friday, she didn't have to start her homework right away. Before she put in a DVD, she looked at herself in the mirror, trying to think of happy thoughts. She internally chuckled while she brushed out her brown hair. _Why the heck did my parents name me _Aoi_? That's Japanese for blue, and I'm not blue at all! _

Right as she thought this, she was reminded of Hoshigaki Kisame, the blue-skinned, shark-like member of the Akatsuki, and she snickered. She started to hum "Blue" by Eiffel 65. _Kisame's theme song._

Feeling a bit happier than she did before, she grabbed a random _Naruto _DVD and put it in her DVD player. As the title menu played, she realized this disk had the episodes where Sakura and Chiyo fight Sasori. Every time she watched them, she found herself cursing Sakura and yelling at the screen. She never really cared for the pink-haired kunoichi, but now she downright hated her after she and Chiyo killed Sasori.

She stopped the DVD when she heard her parents' voices downstairs. Thinking that it was time for dinner, the brunette quickly turned off her TV and started to walk downstairs. She stopped when she realized that her parents were talking about her.

"I just don't get it, I had plenty of friends in high school," said Rosaline, Aoi's mother. "Why can't she just be like everyone else?"

"I don't know, maybe it's a phase. She'll probably grow out of it when she goes to college next year," answered Julius, Aoi's father.

"I doubt it; she's always hated interacting with people, even when she was young," replied Rosaline. "I just wish she'd find herself a best friend, or even a boyfriend. That would show that she was at least a bit normal."

Aoi felt her face beginning to turn red. She knew that her classmates thought she wasn't normal, but her parents thought so too? She knew that she really didn't go out much besides the bookstore, the art store, and the library, but she didn't find that unusual. Some people liked to hang out with friends; she liked to read and draw. Alone. _Okay, maybe that _is _a bit weird, _she thought. _But still, this put me in a crappy mood, and I wasn't having a good day to begin with. I'll go to the art store after dinner. Getting a new sketchbook should cheer me up. _

Deciding her plans for the night, Aoi tried to make her face look normal as she walked down the stairs. "Hey," she called out, a fake smile on her face, "is dinner almost ready? I want to go to the art store to get a new sketchbook, and it closes at nine."

"Dinner's ready now. We're having lemon pepper chicken," said Julius. If Aoi didn't hear the conversation before, she would have been thrilled; lemon pepper chicken was her favorite. Now, it was just ironic that she would be eating her favorite food when she really didn't want it.

Julius and Rosaline tried to make conversation with Aoi, but she didn't feel like talking. After awhile, the two adults talked amongst themselves, leaving Aoi to eat in peace. After she was done, she cleaned off her plate and told her parents that she would be back in two hours. She went upstairs to grab her car keys and her messenger bag. After making sure that her purse was in the bag, she ran back downstairs, put on her coat, and headed out the door.

It was November, and naturally, it was cold outside, especially when one lives in the Midwest. Aoi shivered as she got into her car, hoping that it would warm up soon; she hated driving when she was cold. It was a twenty minute ride to the nearest art supply store; by the time she was there the car was toasty warm. She almost didn't want to leave it to go back outside in the freezing cold, but she wanted to look around the store more. So she reluctantly left the car, locking it behind her, and quickly walked through the parking lot and into the store.

She immediately felt her mood lighten when she looked around. She saw aisles upon aisles of markers, colored pencils, sketchbooks, and even sculpting clay. When she looked at that aisle, she giggled to herself. _Deidara would love this! _She walked back to the sketchbook section; that _was _what she was planning on buying, after all. She always got so distracted in this store. When she looked at the sketchbook she really wanted, she saw that it was really expensive. Aoi didn't like to spend money, so she decided to get a cheaper one; the paper wasn't as good, but she still could draw effectively on it.

Since she still had plenty enough time to drive back to her house, she decided to look upstairs; that's where the fabric and jewelry-making supplies were. Aoi was no good at sewing or making jewelry, but she liked looking at all the different colors and textures of fabrics and the different charms for jewelry. She was looking down the jewelry aisle when something caught her eye. It was a dark red jewel with silver wire wrapped around it in some sort of swirling pattern. It had no price tag on it and Aoi wasn't sure if it was for sale, but for some reason, the jewel called out to her. She had to have it. She decided to go downstairs and ask a worker to tell her the price. If it was too expensive, she could always ask her parents to buy it for her as a Christmas present.

She started walking down the steps when she suddenly lost her balance. She tried to keep herself upright, but she slipped down the rest of the stairs. She still clutched the jewel in her hand, unable to stop herself from tripping over the last step and hitting her forehead on the edge of a table next to the staircase. She felt a searing pain in her head, and soon she blacked out. But not before the jewel started to glow…

* * *

And that was the end of Chapter One! Sorry about the cliffhanger; I just thought that this would be a good place to end the chapter. I am also sorry if this was really boring; I wanted to really give a good description of Aoi and her life. The Akatsuki appear in the next chapter. If you want Aoi to be paired with anyone, now's the time to ask, since I'm not that far into the story yet.

I also apologize to Sakura fans. I don't hate her; it's just that most Sasori fangirls hate her. Sakura is all right (except when she and Chiyo killed Sasori, then I didn't like her for awhile, though I think Chiyo is awesome, lol). She's not my favorite character, but there are other characters I hate way more than her, XD.

In anime, appearance reflects someone's personality. That's why I gave Aoi pale brown hair and grey eyes. She's supposed to be very ordinary looking. Most characters have one unique part of their appearance (Pein's piercings, Deidara's bangs, Tobi's mask, etc.) so I gave her braces to make her seem younger. This is to make her seem more socially awkward too.

I hope you enjoy the story so far! Chapter Two is coming soon!

**EDIT 2012:**

**I hope this made the chapter more exciting. I added the part where Aoi was getting bullied just to show that she was not liked at her school.**


	3. Chapter Two

**EDIT 2012: This chapter is pretty similar to the original, but I made Deidara less jumpy. I also edited Aoi's thoughts on Tobi's real identity. **

**There will be a pairing or two in this story, but they will not be the main plot, nor will they happen quickly. It wouldn't be realistic for characters (especially not Akatsuki members, XD) to fall in love with someone in a snap, so the romance will happen as slowly as possible, XD. **

The Akatsuki are back! The real plot can begin now!

Oh, I don't own Naruto (sadly, lol).

*WARNING: Spoilers on how the Akatsuki die are in this chapter!*

* * *

Chapter Two: Hello, New World

When Aoi came to, she had a killer headache. She brought her hand onto her forehead to check for any damage. Sure enough, she felt a long gash, as well as the blood that leaked from it. She groaned to herself resisting the urge to facepalm. _How embarrassing! I can't believe I fell down the stairs! I must've looked like a total idiot! _Opening her eyes, she was shocked to find that she wasn't in the art supply store anymore; she was outside, on a small hill that overlooked a city. _Okay, this is weird. I must've hit my head pretty hard, and now I'm in a coma or something. Yeah, that's logical. Because there is no way that I would end up in a city that looks like…_

Aoi's eyes widened when she realized what the city reminded her of: Amegakure. She knew that Ame was a fictional place, so she assumed that she was still unconscious. _It's pretty realistic, though, _she continued to think, looking at her surroundings. She slowly stood up, deciding that she was going to look around.

Picking up her messenger bag that she surprisingly still had, she started to walk down the hill, holding her bleeding forehead. _If this is all a dream, why does my forehead still hurt? _She shrugged and rolled her eyes; she didn't understand dream logic. Just as she thought this, she felt something in her other hand; she realized that she was still holding the jewel she found at the store. She put it in her bag so she wouldn't lose it and continued walking.

When she got fully into the city and saw various people with Ame forehead-protectors, she knew that her first assumption was correct; she was indeed in Amegakure. She looked around, taking in all the sights and sounds. Aoi was fascinated by this village and, real or not, she was going to enjoy her time here. She wasn't looking where she was walking, however, and bumped into something or someone. _Definitely someone, _she thought when she heard a grunt.

"Oh, I am so sorry!" she exclaimed, turning to face the person that she walked into. She did a double take when she recognized this particular person…

* * *

Deidara was not having a good day. His shoulder was still sore from Pein dislocating it the night before, even though Kakuzu fixed it. To add insult to injury, the pierced man had sent him and Sasori to scout around the entire village, looking for the person he summoned. The bomber sighed as he thought of how the others just had to look around the base itself. _Lucky bastards; of course _we're _stuck with the hard job. _

He was broken out of his thoughts when he felt someone bump into him. Cursing under his breath, he looked to see who had almost knocked him down. The person was a short, brunette girl, and when she looked up at him, he noticed that her eyes were a shade of dark grey, like wet clay. She said something that sounded like an apology, but he couldn't tell; she was speaking a language that was unfamiliar to him. For some reason, she looked at him with recognition, even though the blond was positive that he never saw her before in his life.

"Deidara, Sasori," she said, looking at the two with awe. She then proceeded to say something else, but Deidara couldn't understand any of it.

"She has no chakra," said Sasori, nudging him with Hiruko's tail.

_Why does he always hide in that ugly puppet? It's unnerving! _Aloud, Deidara responded with a half-interested "What?"

"Like I said, brat, she has no chakra. None at all. And she's not masking it either. It's bizarre," the puppeteer replied.

"Should we take her back to Pein, un? He said that we should look for someone with unusual chakra," Deidara asked, looking at his partner.

"My gut says we should. She apparently knows us, though we have never met her. If she is not who we're looking for, I could always make her a part of my collection."

_His collection. _Deidara shuddered. He hoped, for her sake, that she was who they were looking for.

"Come along, girl," barked Sasori, pointing Hiruko's tail at the girl, who was just standing next to him the whole time, watching them.

She shrugged her shoulders and said something in her language. Guessing that she couldn't understand them, Deidara grabbed her hand. He immediately dropped it when he felt something wet and sticky. He looked at his own hand and realized it was covered blood. Taking a closer look at the girl, she realized that she had a long cut on her forehead. _That can be fixed when we get to the base, if Pein permits it_. Once again, he grabbed her hand and pulled her arm, trying to convey that she must follow them.

She must have gotten the message because she nodded and followed the blond. Sasori followed behind them so she wouldn't try to escape. Not that she would; she seemed quite content, even though one of Deidara's hand-mouths was licking the blood off her hand. Either she didn't notice or she didn't care, which puzzled him. _She's quite different_.

Once they got inside the base, the two Akatsuki took her to Pein's study.

After finally removing himself from Hiruko, Sasori spoke. "Pein-sama, I believe we found someone who could be the person you summoned. She knew our names, even though we never met her before. She has no chakra at all, though, which is strange."

"What is her name?" asked Pein, looking at the girl.

"We don't know; she doesn't speak our language, un," answered Deidara.

"That can be fixed," answered the pierced man. He made a few hand signs, then placed a finger on the girl's mouth. "Girl, what is your name?"

"My name is Aoi Coulter, or as people in your world say it, Coulter Aoi, Pein-sama," answered the girl, who could now speak the same language as everyone in this world.

"How do you know my name?" he asked, tightly gripping Aoi's shoulders. If she was scared, she didn't show it, and Deidara gave her credit for that.

"I know all of the Akatsuki members' names, and more. I know everything about you," said Aoi, smiling. On her teeth were shiny, metal squares with a metal wire running through them.

_What are those? They look mechanical, _thought Deidara, confused. He looked at Sasori, and then back at Aoi. _Is she a human puppet too? _

"You will tell me what you know and how you know it," hissed Pein, grabbing the girl and nearly throwing her into his study. He went in after her, closing the door behind him.

* * *

Aoi was surprised when Pein threw her into his study. Her forehead still throbbed painfully, and she was starting to think that everything was real. Something weird was going on, and the brunette was positive that it had something to do with the mysterious jewel.

"Aoi!" barked Pein, snapping her out of her thoughts. "What do you know, and how do you know it?"

_What, no honorific?_ She didn't say it aloud, though; Pein was even more intimidating in person than in the anime and manga. What she did say was, "I will tell you everything I know, if you answer a question of mine first. How did I get here, Leader-sama? As you probably know, this isn't my world."

Pein nodded. "That seems fair enough. Yesterday, the members of the Akatsuki and I performed a jutsu that would summon someone who knew our futures to us. That person is apparently you."

"Did it have anything to do with this?" Aoi asked, taking the jewel out of her bag.

"Actually, yes," answered the pierced man. "I drew that same pattern on the floor, for the jutsu."

Aoi nodded. "You answered my question, so I will answer yours. I know everything about your organization. Your names, abilities, successes, failures, backstories, favorite foods. I even know your deaths, exactly who killed you, and how."

"Tell me then, if you know so much," demanded Pein.

The brunette nodded. "Sasori dies first; killed by Haruno Sakura of Konoha and Lady Chiyo of Suna. Hidan "dies" next. Yes, I know he's immortal, but he is decapitated and buried alive by Nara Shikamaru of Konoha. He is slowly dying of malnutrition. Next is Kakuzu, who is killed by Hatake Kakashi, also of Konoha. After him comes Deidara, who uses his C0 attack to blow himself up in an attempt to kill Uchiha Sasuke. He fails, because Itachi dies next; killed by Sasuke. After that, uh, you die, Pein-sama. Or should I say…_Nagato-sama_. You die bringing some of Konoha's dead back to life. Kisame dies next, letting himself get eaten by sharks he summoned instead of revealing information on the Akatsuki to the people who were interrogating him. That's all I know."

This was actually a lie. She knew that Konan dies protecting Nagato's body from Uchiha Obito, who called himself Uchiha Madara after dropping his Tobi persona. She didn't want to say this to the leader yet; she didn't want to start a war between Pein and Obito. She also knew that Deidara, Sasori, Kakuzu, Itachi, and Nagato would be brought back to life by Kabuto, but she didn't mention this either; she didn't want anyone to go after Kabuto, especially since Orochimaru was still alive, at the moment. "However," she continued. "I do know that Tobi is actually Uchiha Madara, who is another leader of the Akatsuki." Now that she knew the masked man's real identity, it was weird to keep using his other fake identity, but since it was the persona Pein knew, she figured she had to.

"So you know Tobi's true identity, then," stated Pein.

"Yes," answered Aoi. Suddenly, a shooting pain shot through the cut on her forehead. She reflexively brought her hand to the wound.

"I will send you to Kakuzu-san so that will be healed. I must have time to think about this. After you are healed, he will take you to the meeting room. I believe that the others would want to know this information," said Pein.

"Yes, Leader-sama," answered Aoi, her teeth slightly clenched in pain.

"Oh, and one more thing, Aoi-san. Do not mention that Tobi is Madara to the others. Only Konan, Itachi, Zetsu, and I know. I'd like to keep it that way." Pein's voice was friendly, but Aoi heard the hidden threat. She nodded; she didn't want to be killed now that she knew this wasn't a dream.

"Good. Let's go, then." Pein opened his door and led Aoi out. He looked surprised when he saw that Deidara were still standing by the door.

"What are you still doing here?" he asked.

"I thought that we should take her to Kakuzu-san to get her forehead fixed, un. Sasori no danna left because he got tired of waiting," answered the blonde

"Then take her. I have work to do," said Pein, pushing the brunette towards the bomber. She almost fell into him, but grabbed his shoulder to stop herself.

The blond grunted, and Aoi was surprised. She didn't think she was that strong. "Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry! Did I hurt you?"

"No, you just startled me, un," answered Deidara. "All right," he continued, "let's go to Kakuzu-san's infirmary."

The two walked in silence until Deidara asked, "What are those things on your teeth?"

"You mean my braces?" asked Aoi. She realized that ninja probably didn't go to the dentist, and mentally chuckled at the thought of the Akatsuki in a dentist's waiting room. "Braces make your teeth straighter. They really hurt sometimes though, especially when the wires get tightened and new brackets get put on and…" she stopped when she realized she was rambling. She really didn't talk to people very much, so she tended to say a lot when she did. "Sorry," she continued. "I bet I sounded stupid."

"No," answered Deidara. "Actually, what you said was kind of fascinating. What kind of world do you live in, un?"

Aoi explained her world to the bomber. She only left out that he and the rest of the Akatsuki were supposed to be fictional; she didn't think that he could handle that yet.

"So in your world, girls dress like guys, un?" he asked.

"What?" she asked, surprised. She looked at her clothes, which consisted of a blue t-shirt, navy blue zippered jacket, and dark blue jeans. "Actually, an outfit like this can be common on girls." She didn't say that at her school, most girls wore skirts and blouses. "Guys' outfits are baggier than this."

"Oh," answered the Iwa-nin. "In this world, girls usually wear a dress of some sort, with leggings or shorts."

She nodded, thinking of Sakura's and Ino's outfits. _I should probably get new clothes so I don't look like a freak here. _

"You don't look that freaky, un," Deidara joked.

"I said that out loud?" Aoi asked, embarrassed.

He nodded, and her face started to turn red.

"Not to be creepy here, but how old are you, un?" he asked, tilting his head.

"I'm seventeen," she answered.

"Really? I'd never guess," he replied. "You look so much younger, un."

Aoi sighed. "I know. I haven't grown any taller in two years. I've looked exactly the same from when I was fifteen. I even still have the braces."

"Like Sasori-danna, un," he muttered, half to himself.

"What?" asked Aoi.

"He hasn't changed his appearance either," he explained.

"But he's a puppet; he's not supposed to look older," she retorted.

"How…did you know that?" the blonde asked, surprised.

"Like I said to Pein-sama, I know everything about all of you."

"Really, so when I grabbed your hand, you didn't care that I had mouths on mine?" he asked.

"Nope, doesn't bother me a bit," she replied. "I'm used to being an outcast; I don't find people who are different from me weird. That'd just make me a hypocrite."

Deidara nodded, looking surprisingly understanding. "Well, we're at the infirmary. I have to go now; Kakuzu-san will show you where to go from here, un,"

Aoi nodded. "Thank you, Deidara-san." To her, adding honorifics to names was strange, but she knew that in order to even attempt to blend in, she'd have to speak like the natives of this world.

"For walking you to the infirmary?" he asked.

"Well, yes," replied the brunette, "but also for talking to me. Not many people do. I thank you for that."

With that, she knocked on the door. An extremely tall, stitched man opened it. "Ah, Pein-sama said you'd come. Something about a forehead injury?"

Aoi nodded, and walked inside. She turned around and saw Deidara wave to her, the mouth on his palm grinning. She smiled and waved back. _Maybe being trapped in this world won't be that bad, _she thought.

* * *

**EDIT 2012:  
I decided that Sasori will hide in Hiruko whenever he goes outside, since he does so in the anime/manga. I also like to think that he is a master of disguise, so if he doesn't use Hiruko, he'll use a transformation technique on missions even when he doesn't need to, in this story. **

And that ends Chapter Two! It might have been boring, but Aoi needed to prove that she indeed knew about the Akatsuki before Pein even remotely trusted her.

Also, Deidara will not be paired with Aoi. I just needed for her to make a friend, and Deidara seemed to be the obvious choice because he is the closest in age to her, and seems to be the most talkative Akatsuki member besides Tobi and Hidan.

Chapter Three is coming soon!


	4. Chapter Three

**EDIT 2012:**

**Welcome to Chapter Three of "Changing Destiny"! I hope all of you who are reading this are enjoying the story so far! In this chapter, there will be more interactions between Aoi and the rest of the Akatsuki.**

***Warning, this chapter has language***

**I do not own Naruto (obviously everyone knows this already). **

* * *

-Chapter Three: Tension-

Aoi was curious to see how Kakuzu would heal her wound. She didn't know he was a medical ninja; all she knew from the anime was that he stitched Deidara's arms and Hidan's head back to their bodies.

The stitched-nin's hand glowed green, like she saw Sakura's and Tsunade's do, as he placed his hand on Aoi's forehead. She felt her forehead get warm and gradually the pain disappeared. "Thank you, Kakuzu-san," she said when he was finished.

The Taki-nin only grunted.

"Um, Kakuzu-san, Leader-sama said that you were supposed to take me to the meeting room. He wanted me to explain to everyone why I'm here," said Aoi.

Kakuzu got up and walked out of the infirmary, with Aoi following behind him. Unlike when she walked with Deidara, she didn't even attempt to make conversation; Kakuzu didn't seem like the talking type.

Before long, she and the green-eyed man had made it to a door that she presumed to be the meeting room.

Kakuzu opened the door and gestured for her to walk inside. "After you," he said.

_Huh, who knew he was the courteous type_. She nodded and walked inside, with Kakuzu following her. Once she actually looked around, she noticed that the rest of the Akatsuki—minus Pein—was sitting around a meeting table, staring at her. There were two seats open; one for Kakuzu and one she presumed was for Pein. While Kakuzu took his seat, Aoi stood where she was, wondering what to do.

She didn't need to wonder for long. A couple moments after she arrived, Pein entered the room. He opened his mouth to say something, but he wasn't able to let out a word because someone else spoke. "So who's the bitch?"

_Hidan, _Aoi thought, mentally rolling her eyes. She would've known if he spoke even if she wasn't looking at him. The silver-haired Jashinist might have been censored in the English manga, but the brunette watched the subs and knew what a foul mouth he had.

Pein looked like he was going to kill someone. "This is Coulter Aoi," he said through gritted teeth. "She is the person we summoned last night. She apparently knows a lot about all of us. I called this meeting because I learned some disturbing facts. About your deaths."

"That's fuckin' bullshit! I'm immortal!" yelled Hidan.

"Don't be so sure," retorted Pein. He nodded at Aoi. "Apparently, you can die from malnutrition, though slowly."

"W-what? That's fuckin' impossible! Isn't it?" Hidan looked around.

"I believe Aoi-san can make everything clear," said Pein.

That was Aoi's cue to start explaining. She told them everything she told Pein, minus Tobi's true identity and Pein's death. She didn't want to embarrass the leader in front of everyone.

Once she was done explaining, the meeting room was in an uproar, with everyone talking at once.

"I got killed by _Uchiha Sasuke_, un? Damn Uchihas and their damn eyes!" That was Deidara. Aoi noticed that he was sulking. If it wasn't about his death, she would have laughed.

"Technically, you killed yourself, shit for brains," said Hidan.

"Uchiha made me! Thanks for telling us, Aoi-san, now we can prevent this from happening, un," Deidara replied.

"Yes, thank you, Aoi-chan!" exclaimed a voice Aoi would have thought was sweet if she didn't know who was really speaking.

"Oh! You're welcome, Tobi-san!" Aoi was nervous. She considered Obito to be even more intimidating than Pein, which was saying a lot. She hoped he stuck to his Tobi personality while she was here.

She was snapped out of her thoughts when Tobi pulled her into a hug. She realized that he was extremely strong, and was hugging her to the point where she felt pain. _He's up to something, _Aoi thought nervously.

The masked man finally released her, saying, "Aoi-chan is so little! From now on, Tobi will call her Aoi-chibi!"

_Great, even the Akatsuki think I'm tiny! _She looked over at Kisame. _But then again, with someone like_ him _in the group, being only five feet makes me seem like a midget. _

"Ha, for once, you said something that was true, Tobi!" laughed Kisame. He looked back at Aoi and then laughed some more. "Aoi-chibi! That fits!"

"Now that she proved that she knows the future, Aoi-chibi can tell us where the tailed beasts are!" Tobi exclaimed. Everyone in the room suddenly became silent.

"Yes, do tell us, since we need them for our plan," ordered Pein

_Damn! I like the Akatsuki, but I don't want them to kill Gaara, Naruto, and the other jinchuriki! Damn you, Obito! _Aoi decided that she was going to have to lie.

"Okay then," said Aoi, choosing her words carefully. "I don't know exactly who and where they are, but I know the One-Tail is in Suna, and the Nine-Tails is in Konoha."

_ There,_ she thought, _I didn't tell them any information that they didn't know already. _

"We already knew that," said Sasori. "Don't you know anything else?"

She didn't want to lie to her favorite character, so she looked at Pein. "I am sorry, Pein-sama," she said, bowing her head and feigning disappointment, "but that is all I know. I'll tell you when I know anything else."

"That is also something I wanted to ask you."

Aoi whirled around, surprised that this person had spoken. "Itachi-san?"

The raven-haired man looked at her and continued. "Just how do you know so much about us?"

_Stupid Uchihas and their questions! _The brunette didn't want to tell them all that they were fictional where she came from. Instead she said, "Dreams. I've had dreams about all of you for a long time." That wasn't a total lie; Aoi had dreamt about the Akatsuki many times.

Itachi nodded, seemingly pleased with her answer. Aoi didn't miss the look he gave Pein, however, and wondered what it meant.

"I believe that this meeting is over. Aoi has told us all that she knows," said Pein.

"What do we do with her now, un?" asked Deidara.

"Can I sacrifice her to Jashin-sama?" asked Hidan.

"No. Let me turn her into a puppet," retorted Sasori. Aoi didn't know whether to be frightened or flattered.

"Enough!" thundered Pein. "Since Aoi-san has dreams about us, she might have more, and they might be about the bijuu. She will be considered an honorary member, since we don't know how to send her back to her world. She will stay in Sasori and Deidara's room."

"What?" asked Sasori, becoming microscopically irritated. "One brat is enough. Why must she stay in our room?"

"Because you two found her. And I doubt that she wants to stay with Hidan and Kakuzu," answered the pierced man.

"What about Itachi-san and Kisame-san, or even Konan-san?" the redhead persisted.

"That's enough, Sasori-san! My decision is final!" Pein looked like he was about to explode with anger.

Aoi wondered why Sasori didn't want her to stay with him and Deidara. Sure, sharing a room with two guys would seem awkward at first, but she wasn't that unappealing, was she?

"Itachi-san, kindly take Aoi-san to her room," said Pein.

"Hn," said the Uchiha.

_The famous Uchiha 'hn'. _Aoi giggled mentally. _I was wondering when he would say that._

"Come along, Aoi-san," said Itachi. He was polite; Aoi had to smile at that. She followed the Uchiha out of the meeting room.

"Itachi-san, what did Leader-sama mean when he said he couldn't send me back?" asked Aoi. What Pein said before had finally dawned on her.

"It means he doesn't know how to get you back to your world; the jutsu didn't have instructions for how to reverse the summoning," he answered.

"Oh, okay." On one hand, Aoi was relieved. She was finally able to interact with people without them calling her a freak. On the other hand, she would miss her parents, and would feel terrible that they would worry about her. _That's the only downside, _she thought bittersweetly. _Besides them, I really couldn't care less if I went back._

She stopped thinking when she felt a hand on her shoulder. She looked up at Itachi, who had his Sharingan activated. The last thing she thought of before her vision went black was how she was glad that it was ordinary Sharingan and not Mangekyo.

Though she couldn't see, she could still hear. The Uchiha's voice sounded slightly sad as he said, "I am sorry, Aoi-san." She felt an intense pain in her head before she gave into unconsciousness completely.

* * *

"I don't understand why _she _has to stay in _our_ room." Sasori was not happy. He didn't like change, especially when it was abrupt. He and Deidara left the meeting slightly after Aoi and Itachi did; Sasori didn't want the girl messing with his puppets.

"Relax, Sasori-danna," Deidara advised. "She's not that bad, un. She's not all annoying like other girls. She only talks when she has something meaningful to say."

"Then maybe you will learn something from her, brat."

Deidara got the hint. He stopped talking before Sasori got really mad.

When the two got closer to their room, Sasori noticed that Itachi was leaning over an apparently unconscious Aoi, holding a hand to her forehead and the other supporting her back. Apparently, Deidara noticed this too since he yelled, "What the hell do you think you're doing, Uchiha? Pein-sama said not to harm her."

"Calm down, brat," said Sasori. "I'm sure he has a reasonable explanation." He turned to the raven-haired man. "Right, Itachi-san?"

"Hn," grunted the Uchiha. "Pein told me to use Sharingan on her to see her memories, and to also see if she was lying."

"Is she?" asked the redhead.

"No, she is not. She told us everything she knew." Itachi paused for a second and then continued. "She really does belong in this world, though."

"What do you mean, un?" Deidara had finally cooled down enough to speak semi-politely to the Uchiha.

Itachi answered, "In her world, she was an outcast. Because she didn't like people and would rather be by herself, reading and drawing, they shunned her. Like where we are, her world is also a cruel place for people different than the social norm. Maybe even worse. Her own parents are disappointed in her, even though she did nothing wrong."

Sasori looked at the unconscious girl. _So she's an artist? I wonder what her view on art is. _ He looked away, realizing he was staring at her, and continued to think._ She doesn't like people either? No wonder she looked so uncomfortable when Tobi hugged her. …Though anyone would. _The redhead mentally slapped his forehead. _Why the hell do I care? She's a pathetic, weak girl who couldn't even fit in with her own world. _ Aloud, he said, "I'm going to fix the room before she destroys my puppets. Come along, brat!"

Deidara sighed and shook his head before he reluctantly followed Sasori.

* * *

As Sasori and Deidara left, Itachi laid Aoi on her back, brushing her hair away from her face. He wasn't sure why she had not woken up yet; it had been more than ten minutes since he used the Sharingan on her. Normally, a person would wake up faster. _Something's wrong. Maybe it's because she doesn't have any chakra. _

He was snapped out of his thoughts when he heard footsteps coming down the hallway. He stood up, and was soon face-to-face with Tobi, or should he say, Madara. The older Uchiha looked down at Aoi, his Sharingan visible though the hole in the mask.

"What do you want, Madara?" Though he was annoyed that his relative had the compulsion to stick his nose into everything, he kept his composure.

"Nothing much," chuckled the masked man. "I just wanted to check on our honorary member. She is an important—yet still untrustworthy—part of the Akatsuki now; she will have to be monitored. I wonder though, did she really tell us everything she knows?"

"Yes," said Itachi. "I just searched her mind with the Sharingan, and she was indeed telling the truth."

"Really now?" asked Madara. Itachi could almost see him sneering. "If I find out otherwise—which I'm sure I will—she will be in for a lot of pain." For emphasis, he took a kunai out of a pocket in his cloak and slowly brought it across Aoi's neck, creating a shallow cut. As this was happening, the girl softly moaned, blood slowly dripping from the wound. "It would be fun to break her, to show her that this reality is no better than her own, that she is just as disillusioned as everyone else on this pathetic planet."

Suddenly, Itachi felt a rare pang of anger bubble into his throat. Though he kept his voice composed, the venom was there, subtly. "Leave."

"Fine, fine!" he held his hands up. "I will not fight with the mighty _Uchiha Itachi_."

Itachi narrowed his eyes. Madara was mocking him. But the masked man had backed away. He passed by Itachi, whispering, "If I find out she's been withholding information, she will pay dearly. Goodbye, _Itachi-san_." Just as soon as he said that, he was gone, disappearing into the shadows.

Itachi let his eyes adjust back into their stoic façade as he picked up Aoi, who was surprisingly very light, and carried her to Sasori and Deidara's room. He opened the door and placed the girl on Sasori's bed. The owner of said bed glared at him from his workbench. "On the floor," he stated.

"She needs to recover from the Sharingan. I think you can handle sleeping on the floor, Sasori-san." After he said this, the Uchiha left, leaving an angry Sasori.

* * *

Deidara was not stupid. When Itachi placed Aoi on his partner's bed, he noticed the shallow cut on her neck.

When the Uchiha left, the blond turned to his partner. "Did you see that, Sasori-danna, un?"

"Hmm? See what, brat?" asked the redhead.

"There's a cut on Aoi-san's neck. That wasn't there before. What do you suppose Itachi did to her?"

"What?" Sasori looked at the girl on his bed. "You're right. But when we left, Itachi said he only used Sharingan on her."

"How do you know he isn't lying, un?" the blonde asked darkly. A thought suddenly came to him, and his visible eye narrowed. "What if he, you know, assaulted her?"

"I don't think so; she would look worse than this," replied Sasori. "Plus, you're speaking of Uchiha Itachi, the man who has fewer hormones than a rock. I am not sure why he would want to cut her, though. Frankly, I don't care. She better not be bleeding on my bed." Suddenly having an idea, the redhead roughly picked up the girl and laid her on the floor. "There. Now she can bleed all she wants." Looking at Deidara, he continued, "I'm going back to working on my puppet. Don't even think of bothering me again. I don't care if she's dying of blood loss; you deal with it!" After shaking his head, he furiously walked back to his workbench.

_What's up with him? He's not usually this angry_. Deidara turned to look at Aoi, starting to think that she was the one causing Sasori's agitation. After a few seconds, he realized that she was still bleeding. _Shit!_ He got up and—trying not to disturb his partner—got a roll of gauze, scissors, and medical tape from his first-aid kit. He cut a small portion of the gauze and taped it to the girl's neck, covering the wound. _There. That's better. _An idea hit him and he grabbed one of the pillows from his bed, placing it under Aoi's head. He sighed as he walked back to his own bed and started to play with his clay. _She's certainly making the Akatsuki more interesting…not that we needed it._ _It will be fun to see how everything plays out. And if Pein orders us to dispose of her, it would be nice if I could make her into art, so she can die beautifully. I hope she sticks around for awhile, though; she's fun to talk to. _Cracking his neck, Deidara settled himself onto his bed, letting sleep overtake him.

* * *

**EDIT 2012: **

**I changed a few characters' (mostly Itachi's and Deidara's) lines so that they are not too friendly/protective over Aoi just yet. They don't know her, and they are S-Class criminals, so why should they care too much about her, at least at this point in the story, XD. I kept Deidara a bit friendlier than the others just because I picture him to be very social. (And since he probably doesn't get a lot of conversation with Sasori besides art debates and arguing, I decided that he'd be Aoi's first ally [well, sort of; I couldn't think of any other word to describe their interactions…XD].) **

Obito's such a little creeper, isn't he! I hope Itachi wasn't too OOC. Just to clear something up: he knows that Aoi didn't say everything, but is saying that she did so 'Madara' wouldn't target her. Too late for that, though…Also, he doesn't know that Tobi is really Obito, so in his parts, he will refer to him as Madara. Pein too; the only person besides Aoi who knows who Tobi really is is Zetsu.

I have no idea if the Sharingan can see memories, but it can do so much else that I was like, "What the heck?" I think it would be cool, though.

I also hope I made Sasori mean enough. He seems like the type that doesn't show emotions, but when he does he is tactlessly mean because he is socially awkward. Plus, it's fun to make him mean, XD!


	5. Chapter Four

**EDIT 2012:**

**Welcome to chapter four! In China, this number is associated with death, XD. I edited this one by changing how Hidan freaked Aoi out, and having Sasori be less interested in Aoi. Happy end of the world day~ **

I'm surprised I actually had the energy to edit this and post it, XD. (I had surgery done on my mouth today. Apparently, my jaw is too small to hold all of my teeth properly, so I had to get four molars removed. [What's funny is that my wisdom teeth already got removed four years ago.] So yeah, my mouth hurts a lot, and the stitches feel really weird, XD.)

This chapter will mostly focus on Aoi and the Akatsuki Artists (my nickname for Sasori and Deidara, lol). The others will appear, but they will not be focused on as much.

Naruto doesn't belong to me (Do I even have to say this?)

* * *

-Chapter Four: Pain-

Sasori watched as both Aoi and Deidara slept. How he envied them; they could sleep soundly while it took him forever to give into unconsciousness. Maybe it was because he was a puppet, but he could remember always being this way. The redhead decided that it was just a part of who he was. That didn't mean he was any less aggravated, though. He sighed and switched positions yet again. When he couldn't fall asleep, he turned on the small lamp he used to read with and started looking around the room. For some reason, he found himself staring at Deidara. The blonde slept on his side, his face completely innocent with sleep. (A fact which made the puppeteer internally snicker.) He also noticed something odd, though. He got up and walked over to the bed next to his. A closer look confirmed it. There was a long scar on the side of Deidara's neck. Sasori never noticed it before because his partner's long hair always covered it. The redhead narrowed his eyes. Deidara had never gotten a neck injury on any of his missions. Plus, this scar looked pretty old. _What happened to him? _He shook his head, annoyed with himself. _Why the hell do I care?_ Though his brain told him to ignore the scar and read a book, his body moved on its own accord and pulled back Deidara's blanket, revealing his exposed back. Like he thought, there were scars all over it. His eyes uncharacteristically widening, he put the blanket back into its original position and climbed back into his bed, turning off the lamp. He didn't know what Deidara's past was; he never cared to ask him. But judging by the age of the scars, he would estimate that he sustained the injuries when he still lived in Iwa. And on top of that, the shape of the scars was too precise to be accidental. _Someone really hurt him_. He closed his eyes and tried to get his thoughts to stop swarming around his head. Somehow, the puppet master eventually fell into a dreamless sleep.

* * *

Aoi woke up thinking that she had a wonderful dream. When she opened her eyes, she saw that she was lying on the floor of an unfamiliar room. She started to panic, but then realized where she was when she saw Deidara sleeping. _Oh yeah, this wasn't a dream._ She had the remnants of a headache, and remembered that Itachi used his Sharingan on her. _Damn Uchiha! _The brunette brought a hand to her neck when she felt a slight pain there. She felt the medical gauze, and wondered what had happened to her after she passed out.

She was snapped out of her thoughts when a voice snapped, "Well, girl, aren't you going to say something, or are you going to just going to stare at the air like a corpse?"

Aoi looked at Sasori, a slight blush appearing on her face. "I am so sorry, Sasori-san. I was just wondering what happened to my neck."

"I do not know, and neither does my partner. Itachi-san brought you into our room last night; when he left, you were bleeding," the redhead replied.

"Did you bandage me? If so, you did a good job," asked Aoi, looking in the mirror on one of the artists' dressers.

Sasori shook his head. "The brat put that on you." He tilted his head, and looked to see if Deidara was still asleep before speaking again, this time in a softer tone. "Aoi-san, do you know what Deidara's past was?"

Aoi was surprised. The puppet master rarely said his partner's name. _Why does he want to know? He usually wouldn't care! _Aloud, she said, "I do not. Why did you ask?"

"No reason." Sasori turned away from the brunette. Clearing his throat, he said, "If you want some new clothes, I can take you to Konan-san's room. She will lend you some of hers. Then she will take you to breakfast."

"Sasori-san, I don't think Konan-san's clothes will fit me. They'll be way too big." Aoi blushed at what she was about to say. "Do you think…I could borrow some of your clothes…since you're the member closest to my height?" The brunette turned away from the puppet master in embarrassment. _Why the hell did I ask him that? He probably thinks I'm some sort of weird creeper now! _

"I guess that will be all right," said Sasori, narrowing his eyes. "Why are you blushing, girl?"

"Umm, well," Aoi paused, trying to figure out what to say.

She didn't have to; Deidara broke the silence when he fell out of his bed. Once he hit the floor, his eyes snapped open. Sasori looked incredulously at the blond, eyes narrowed.

"Good morning, Aoi-san," said the bomber. Making sure that the blanket was wrapped around his upper body, he walked to his dresser, got his clothes, and went into the bathroom, closing the door behind him.

"Does he always keep that blanket wrapped around him before he gets changed?" asked Aoi. "Or is he just doing that for my benefit, so I wouldn't see him shirtless?"

"No," sighed Sasori, pinching the bridge of his nose. "He always does that. He's probably just messed up in the head."

"I don't know. It looks like he was hiding something." An idea suddenly came to the brunette. "Did you know that Deidara has another mouth on his chest?"

"Yes, the entire Akatsuki knows that; we were there when he asked Kakuzu-san to sew it up," answered the puppet master.

_Then what is he hiding? _thought Aoi. The brunette was startled when she felt something tap her on the shoulder. Reminded of what happened with Itachi the night before, she flinched and closed her eyes.

"Girl, what is the matter with you?" asked Sasori. "I only wanted to give you the clothes you wanted." He held out a shirt and a pair of standard Akatsuki pants.

"T-thank you, Sasori-san," she stuttered, taking the clothes from his outstretched hands.

"You can change when the brat gets out. Then he and you can go to breakfast."

"Okay." Aoi nodded, knowing that Sasori didn't eat. A few seconds later, Deidara walked out of the bathroom, hair nicely combed and tied up in its usual ponytail.

"Bathroom's all yours, girl," stated Sasori. "I want to work on a special puppet, so the sooner you are changed, the sooner you and the brat can leave for breakfast. I am a very impatient man, so _hurry up_."

Aoi nodded, not liking the irritated look on the puppet master's face. She hurried into the bathroom and locked the door behind her. She was sure Sasori wasn't one to peek, but to her, Deidara seemed like he could be the perverted type. Knowing that the longer Sasori waited, the angrier he would get, the brunette quickly stripped off her old clothes, only leaving on her tank-top, bra, and panties. She slipped the pants on first. They were a bit long and wide, so she cuffed them even more and tied the belt that came with them as tight as it could go. Satisfied with that, she put on the shirt. It was loose, but then again, it was a man's shirt. Running her fingers through her hair, she shrugged; it looked the best it could be without the help of a brush. She remembered that Deidara used one, so she looked around, finding one on the sink. She quickly brushed her hair and walked out of the bathroom.

Sasori's eyes were narrowed while Deidara looked like he was about to laugh. "You're wearing Sasori-danna's clothes," snickered the blonde, unable to hold in his laughter.

"What's so funny?" asked Aoi.

"Shouldn't you be wearing something a bit more feminine, un?" Deidara smirked.

"Yeah, well Konan-san is the only woman here, and her clothes probably wouldn't fit. Plus, these are more comfortable than the skirt-and-leggings combo the women here always wear," retorted Aoi.

"Will you two shut up and leave already? You're starting to make me angry," said Sasori, looking dangerously irritated.

"Fine, fine. We'll leave, un. Come along, Aoi-san!"

The two walked out of the room, not wanting to stick around to see the redhead truly angered.

* * *

Sasori sighed as the two left, closing the door behind him. What he told them was true, he _did_ want to work on a puppet, but before that, he wanted to see what was in Aoi's bag. He had found it in the meeting room after the girl left the night before, so he brought it to his room to give it back.

He dumped the contents of the bag out on his bed. His eyes quickly perused the jewel, purse, and some sort of textbook (which was written in an unfamiliar language), but lingered on the sketchbook. He remembered Itachi saying that she was an artist, and was curious about her work. He flipped open the sketchbook to see a realistic portrait of Kisame staring back at him. He looked at the picture in awe, noting how she got his pointy-toothed smirk just right. The redhead flipped through the rest of the sketchbook, admiring every drawing of his fellow Akatsuki members. He was puzzled when he saw the singe marks on the bottom of the Deidara one, but figured that Aoi was going for some sort of effect. However, his heart nearly stopped when he got to the last drawing. It was a portrait of himself. _How did she draw me so well? _he wondered. She got his unemotional face perfectly, adding just the right amount of boredom and slight irritation to make it look like the redhead was staring at a mirror. _If she somehow preserved these, they would last forever. They'd become…eternal. True art. _He quickly closed the sketchbook when he heard a knock on the door.

"Who is it?" he asked, hoping that it wasn't Aoi; he didn't want her to know he was going through her belongings.

"It's Itachi," said the voice. "I need to talk to you, Sasori-san."

"Come in," the puppet master reluctantly replied.

The door opened, and the raven-haired man walked in. He shut the door as soon as he was in the room, saying quietly, "Can I ask you to do a favor for me?"  
"What sort of favor?" Sasori was suspicious. It wasn't like the Uchiha to act this way.

"I need you to look after Aoi-san. Make sure she's comfortable here." Itachi paused for a second, then continued. "I also need you to keep her away from Tobi."

Sasori's eyes narrowed. Something was wrong. "Why Tobi? He seems to be the person least likely to harm the girl."

"Aoi-san scratched her neck when she fainted from my Sharingan. Tobi likes to hug; I don't want the wound reopening." Itachi slightly averted his eyes from the puppet master.

The redhead's eyes narrowed even more. The Uchiha was lying; he was sure of it. The cut on Aoi's neck looked too clean to be a simple scratch. The line was too perfect; it had to have come from a kunai. But, he needed something from the raven-haired man as well. "Very well. I will watch her, and make sure Tobi doesn't bug her. However, there is something I must ask of you, Itachi-san. Can you look at Deidara's memories?"

If the Uchiha was surprised, he didn't show it. "Very well, it will be difficult, seeing that he has a grudge against me, but I will do it as soon as I can. I too have been curious about his background. I take it you've seen the scars?"

Now it was Sasori's turn to be surprised. "How did _you _see them?"

"Hn." That was all Itachi said, and the redhead was now even more suspicious of him than before. "I'll see you at breakfast," he continued, leaving the room and a confused Sasori.

* * *

Itachi was smug as he left Sasori's room. He really didn't know that Deidara had scars; he just assumed that he did based on the way the blonde would always cover his upper body. Now that he knew he was right, he wanted to know the bomber's past as well. One didn't think bombs were art for no reason. The Uchiha was also relieved that he convinced Sasori to protect Aoi. Since he didn't know Tobi's true identity, the masked man would keep up his immature façade around the puppet master.

When he got to the kitchen, he saw that Aoi was laughing about something with Kisame, and that Hidan was laughing along with them.

"Oi, Itachi, did you see this? Aoi's dressed in men's clothes!" He took another glance at the girl and laughed even harder.

"Come on, Hidan-san, Aoi-chibi looks really cute!" Itachi's eyes narrowed at the sound of Tobi's voice. "Aww, look! She's blushing!" The masked man put a gloved hand under her chin and tilted it up towards his face. The brunette squeaked in either surprise or discomfort. "Hear that, Hidan-san? Aoi-chibi squeaked! Isn't that adorable! Tobi sure thinks so!"

"Yeah, well Hidan sure thinks so too," said Hidan, a hungry look in his eye. "Come over here, Aoi-chan."

Itachi didn't like where this was going, but he let Hidan grab Aoi's arm anyways, just so she could be away from the older Uchiha.

"What? Don't you like me, Aoi-chan?" asked Hidan, pulling the girl closer when she tried to squirm away.

"I-I'm sorry, Hidan-san, you're too close," stuttered the brunette.

"Aww, she's even cuter when she's scared," stated the silver-haired immortal. Suddenly, he pulled Aoi onto his lap and grabbed a knife from a pocket in his pants. Smirking, he brought it up to the now-trembling girl's face. "I bet your blood will be sweet."

Before Hidan could make a cut, he abruptly dropped the knife onto the table and looked at the person who just entered the room.

"What is the meaning of this?" the voice wasn't yelling, but the venom in it was clear.

Hidan let go of Aoi and faced the speaker. "Sorry, Sasori-san. I was just having some fun. You know I tried to do the same fucking thing to Konan. Though Pein stopped me before I could even grab her damn hand." The last part was mumbled. "Lighten up, you stupid puppet."

"I would 'lighten up' if you weren't terrorizing a seventeen-year-old," retorted Sasori.

"Terrorizing? Ha, are you fucking stupid? I was only joking!" Hidan was starting to get angry.

"It's okay Sasori-san. I know he was teasing." Aoi muttered, her face still red. The fear in her eyes was still evident, though.

"Nice going, Hidan-baka!" Kisame slapped him on the back of the head.

"Ow! What was that for, you bastard?" yelled Hidan.

Before Hidan or Kisame could get into the fight that they clearly wanted to start, Zetsu phased through the wall. "Can you please **shut the hell up? **We're trying to eat in peace, here! **Why do you think we eat in the common room?"**

That made everyone stop what they were doing; no matter how many times the bi-colored man phased through walls, all the Akatsuki thought it was strange.

"Sasori-san, can you take me back to my room? I'm finished," Aoi asked quietly.

The redhead nodded, and the girl quickly ran behind him as he started walking. "Have a good day, everyone," she said pleasantly, though her eyes betrayed her cheerfulness. They were dull and fixed on the floor.

After they left, Tobi broke the silence. "That was fun! You should mess with Aoi-chibi more, Hidan-san! Did you see her face?"

"Shut the fuck up, Tobi!" yelled Hidan.

He was about to add something else when Deidara walked into the room. "What was all that about, un?" he asked. "I just went downstairs to get some more pancake mix and I hear all this noise."

"Hidan-san tried to cut Aoi-chibi's face, Deidara-senpai!" Tobi sang cheerfully. "Aoi-chibi didn't like it and her face turned all red, so Sasori-san yelled at him! Tobi thought it was cool!"

"What?" Itachi noticed his grip get tighter on the box of pancake mix. "Why the hell would you do that, Hidan? She's awkward around people, if you hadn't noticed, un."

"No, I didn't notice, 'un'." Now Hidan was just mocking the Iwa-nin. "I thought she was going to be like any normal bitch."

"Tobi didn't tell Deidara-senpai the best part: it looked like Hidan-san was trying to cop a feel!"

Now Deidara looked like he was ready to kill Hidan. "If it wasn't bad enough before, now you're telling me that you tried to grope her, un? She's probably going isolate herself from everyone here, and we'll never find out any more information about our futures."

"You could always try to use your charm to make her fall for you, and you can manipulate the information from her that way." Hidan smirked. "Oh wait, never mind, I don't think she likes _women_!"

"That's it!" Deidara ran at the immortal, punching him squarely in the nose. He grinned as he heard it break.

"You're fuckin' dead!" yelled Hidan, holding a hand over his bloody nose, the other one grabbing Deidara's shirt.

Before this could escalate further, Itachi quickly stepped in between them. Now was his chance, while Deidara's guard was down.

"What the hell, Itachi! Get out of the way!" The blond looked at the Uchiha, who activated his Sharingan. "Wait, what are you—" Before he could finish his sentence, Deidara's legs buckled as he fell unconscious, the rest of the Akatsuki staring at Itachi…

* * *

**EDIT 2012:  
I decided to take out the part where Hidan kissed Aoi and replaced it with something less…cliché. (At least I hope it was a less-cliché scenario…) I also made Deidara a bit snarkier and Sasori a bit meaner. **

Sorry for the cliffhanger! I just wanted to save Deidara's backstory for the next chapter. Just to make it clearer, since some people asked, Aoi has information up to the part where ***SPOILER* **Neji dies. ***END SPOILER* **She knows that Sasori, Deidara, etc. get brought back, but she didn't want to explain this information because she didn't want anyone to start a premature conflict with Kabuto or Obito. I hope that makes sense…

I hope I made Hidan in character; he seems like the type that would mess with any semi-attractive female. (Though his ways of flirting are…interesting, XD.)

Just so you won't be confused, Pein, Konan, and Kakuzu were not at breakfast. They were somewhere else when the scene takes place.

I hope Itachi and Deidara weren't OOC…

This isn't my best chapter; I hope it didn't suck too much.


	6. Chapter Five

**EDIT 2012:  
I re-worked a lot of the phrasing to make this sound like my current writing style. I also changed some of Deidara's backstory. (I am combining his canon backstory with one that I created.) This means that he won't have the mouths on his hands and chest until he steals the kinjutsu scroll. However, since he does have the Explosion Release kekkei-genkai, his chakra still has explosive qualities. (He just can't create 'living' sculptures [like his birds, spiders, centipedes, etc.] until he gets his extra mouths.) **

Welcome to Chapter Five! The last chapter wasn't my best, so I will try to make this chapter better! I hope everyone enjoys it!

My mouth still hurts from the surgery, so I edited this chapter to distract myself, XD.

*Warning, this chapter contains violence (more than usual) and language*

Many thanks go to all who reviewed!

To **Robine**: I don't know whether this story will reach the Fourth Shinobi World War, but if it does, I will keep Neji alive, XD. I love him, too, so if he does appear in this story, he won't die.

Thank you for your wonderful reviews; they make my day! C:

* * *

-Chapter Five: Questions-

As soon as Itachi looked into Deidara's eyes, he felt himself being sucked into the blond's mind. When the Iwa-nin was completely unconscious, he whispered through his thoughts, "What is your past in Iwagakure?" There was a small groan from the bomber, meaning that he was resisting the Uchiha's genjutsu. Itachi repeated his question, mentally shouting it instead of whispering like he did previously. Once again, it did not work. Puzzled, Itachi opened Deidara's visible eye and stared into it, repeating his question once more. This time, it worked, and he was pulled into one of the blond's memories.

_"You worthless piece of shit! This is the third time you stayed after school without telling me! I prepared a nice dinner for you, but you missed it, _again!_" The voice belonged to a tall, black-haired man, face contorted with rage._

_ "I-I'm sorry, Father! I didn't mean to, un! I was working on a special project! I must've lost track of the time!" A small, blond child cowered in a corner of the living room._

_ "A 'special project'? Probably one of your worthless sculptures you're always creating!" _

_ "It is special, un! Don't mock my art!" the blond's eyes narrowed, all trace of the stutter gone. _

_ "And that damn speech impediment! What the hell is wrong with you?" roared the man. "I'm glad I'm not your father! Too bad you didn't get killed in that robbery with your parents! You're worthless, Deidara!"_

_ Tears pricked at the boy's eyes but he blinked them away and clenched his fists, anger and fear displayed on his face simultaneously. "Then why did you adopt me, if you didn't want me?"_

_ "Money, of course," the man retorted coolly, looking condescendingly at his 'son'. "I got a hefty sum from the orphanage because they were desperate to get rid of you. Your kekkei-genkai is a dangerous one, after all." He leaned in closer, making the boy flinch. "They said you'd be a talented shinobi one day, and your grades are promising, but all you want to do is _sculpt_! Do you know how many times your teacher approached me and said you skipped class to sculpt in the art supply closet at the academy? You're making a fool out of me! You're a disgrace to me, your dead parents, and the entire village of Iwagakure! You are nothing!"_

_ The tears Deidara tried so desperately to suppress finally started to fall, and the man noticed this. "Oh, so now you're crying? Be a man! You already look enough like a girl with that long hair of yours!" He suddenly lunged forward, grabbing the blond's hair and pulling it so Deidara looked at him. "You're pathetic!" he spat, dragging the boy by his hair and slamming him against the wall. He let go when Deidara sank to the floor, shuddering. When he tried to run out of the room, the man grabbed his arms and harshly pulled them behind his back. "You won't be creating any art for a long time!" he smirked, placing his foot against his back. With one jerk he pulled the blond's arms further back while simultaneously kicking him forward. There were two popping sounds as both his arms dislocated from his shoulders. Deidara let out a gasp of pain as the man let go of him, more tears streaming down his face._

Itachi felt sick. He wanted to look away, but found that he couldn't, physically and mentally.

_The man grabbed Deidara by his hair once more and drew a kunai from his vest pocket. "I'm going to put you out of your misery!" he hissed, sliding it across the side of his neck. Before he could finish the cut, the blond kicked out, striking the man's ankle. He tried to cut Deidara's neck again, but the boy succeeded in twisting out of his tormentor's grasp. The man retaliated by slashing his weapon down the blonde's back three times. Using what little strength he possessed, Deidara ran up the stairs to his room. He found his bag of clay and grabbed a piece of it with his mouth, since his arms were of no use. He spat the clay into one of his hands, and, though it was painful, forced himself to transfer some of his chakra into it. With a last burst of adrenaline, he tossed the wad of clay into his room just as the man burst through the door. Jumping out the open window behind him, Deidara forced his fingers to form a hand sign. "Katsu," he whispered, landing painfully on his knees. He heard the clay explode, and saw his room burst into flames…_

Itachi found himself standing in the kitchen of the Akatsuki lair.

"Damn, what was that for, Uchiha? I wanted to pound the little bastard for breaking my nose!" Hidan glared at him, a hand still on his bleeding nose.

_Only a second had passed in reality, _thought the raven-haired man. He looked at the unconscious Deidara and decided that even though they would never be friends, he understood the bomber more. "Can someone put Deidara-san on the couch in the common room? He should wake up soon."

"We'll do it, Itachi-san," said Zetsu's white half.

"**Yes,**" replied his darker half. "**He looks delicious.**"

The bi-colored man smacked himself in the back of the head. "Baka!"

**"Jeez, sorry!**" Once his two halves stopped arguing, Zetsu picked up the blond and brought him into the next room. After he was finished, he phased through the wall.

"Well, I think breakfast is fuckin' over now," Hidan stated. "Kisame, it's your turn to do the dishes."

"Why me?" asked the shark-nin. "You started all of this!"

"It doesn't matter!" said Itachi, who was starting to get a headache. "_Both_ of you do it!"

The two knew better than to argue with the Uchiha. They nodded and started to clear the table.

_Now, to find Sasori, _he thought, leaving the kitchen.

* * *

Sasori watched as Aoi sat on his partner's bed, drawing in her sketchbook. He was technically supposed to be working on one of his puppets, but he couldn't help but stare. Her movements were graceful, the pencil moving in both long and short strokes across the page. Her face was narrowed in concentration, her eyes focusing on nothing but the drawing in front of her. Recognizing the expression—being a fellow artist, he knew he looked the same whenever he was working—he turned back to his puppet, pouring all his focus into it.

"Sasori-san?" Aoi asked, putting her drawing down.

"Look, girl," the redhead said, choosing his words carefully. "Hidan was just toying with you. He didn't mean anything by it." He was only half-paying attention; he was much too focused on his puppet to really care about anything else.

"I know that," said the brunette, rolling her eyes. "It just caught me by surprise, that's all. No one's ever wanted to be in such close contact with me before. I actually should be flattered. But, I think I'm going to stay away from Hidan-san for awhile. I don't really like people getting that close to me."

"Why?" the puppet master found himself asking.

"I'm not used to it. I've been alone for so long; now I'm just awkward towards people."

"What about your parents?" asked Sasori. _Shut up already! Why should you care about her stupid life? She's nothing; her thoughts don't matter._

Aoi sighed. "They're nice, but they don't understand me. All they see is an outcast. They can't understand why I don't like to be around others or why I like to draw. After a while, they just gave up on me. They're so disappointed they didn't get a normal daughter." Her voice turned cold at that sentence, and Sasori noticed her eyes were filled with loneliness. "I'm actually better off here," she continued. "All of you give me more attention than I ever got in my world. It's actually kind of funny." She paused, a steely glint appearing in her eyes. "I'm not stupid; I know the only reason I'm still alive is because Pein-sama thinks I might see more of your futures. I'm just a tool for Akatsuki, ready to be thrown away when I get dull. But you know what? I'm okay with it. At least here, my life has some meaning."

When she laughed, it wasn't a pleasant sound. It was hollow, and didn't sound right coming out of her mouth. Sasori didn't like it. He understood too well, though, that loneliness cuts deeper than any weapon ever could. The redhead knew that behind her happy façade, Aoi was broken inside. _We're a lot alike_, he thought, narrowing his eyes.

"Can I ask you something, Sasori-san?" Aoi asked, the icy expression and tone gone, her usual soft voice taking its place.

"Go ahead, but make it quick, I hate waiting." That came out as more of a snap than he intended, but he didn't apologize; the girl was messing with his emotions, and he wasn't sure he wanted them back.

The brunette nodded. "I just thought of this a few moments ago, when I saw that you have a bed. How do you sleep?"

"What kind of question is that?" snapped the redhead. _The brat asked the same thing when we became partners._

"Well, I thought since you were a puppet and you didn't eat, you didn't need sleep either," answered Aoi.

"Of course I need sleep; my heart is still human, you know," barked Sasori. "It gets fatigued after awhile. You should know that since you know everything about me!"

The redhead realized too late that he had gone too far. The girl went silent and looked down at her feet. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to sound like such a know-it-all before. I don't know everything about you."

Sasori answered hesitantly. "It's okay…Aoi-san." _There, I said her name. _

Someone knocked on the door, and both Aoi and Sasori looked up.

"Itachi-san," explained Sasori. "He's the only one—besides Kakuzu—who's polite enough to knock." To the door he said. "You can come in, Itachi-san."

The door swung open, revealing the raven-haired Uchiha. "I found out about what you asked me this morning." He walked into the room and shut the door

"Good," nodded the redhead. He looked at Aoi. "Can she stay?" The girl just looked at both of them, confused.

"She might as well," answered Itachi. "I don't think it's a good idea for her to be roaming the base alone. She might get lost."

_No, that's not it. There's something else, _thought Sasori.

"What are you talking about?" asked Aoi.

"The brat's past. You should probably shut up and listen to Itachi-san," snapped the puppet master.

"Deidara-san had a…a rough childhood," said Itachi, his voice quieting. "His parents were killed in some sort of robbery, and he ended up living with a man who beat him every time he was late coming home from school, and hated him because of his kekkei-genkai. One night, after he was late again, the man tried to kill him. Deidara-san escaped and ended up killing the man by blowing up his room."

"How old was he?" asked Sasori, his voice betraying no emotion.

"He looked to be about eleven," replied the Uchiha.

The puppet master nodded. "Thank you, Itachi-san."

Itachi leaned closer to him and whispered, "I presume you'll keep your part of the deal?"

"Fine," said the redhead. He looked at Aoi, who returned to her drawing. "Why are you so intent on protecting her?" This was whispered.

Itachi said nothing, only narrowing his eyes. "Goodbye, Sasori-san," he finally said, breaking the small stare-down he had with the puppeteer. He nodded once more before leaving the room.

* * *

After he left Sasori, Itachi walked to Pein and Konan's room. He had to talk to them about something strange he saw the night before. When he got to their room, he knocked on the door. "Pein-sama, Konan-san? May I come in?"

"Enter, Itachi-san," stated Pein.

Itachi walked into his leader's room. Konan was sitting on her bed, reading a scroll, while Pein was sitting at his table, going over some paperwork.

"I discovered something interesting last night," said the raven-haired man.

"What is it, Itachi-san? Does it have something to do with Aoi-san?" asked Pein.

"Hn," answered Itachi. "I was walking down the hallway by Tobi ,er, Madara, and Zetsu-san's room when I heard the former speaking. When I looked into his room—without him noticing me, of course—I noticed that Zetsu-san was not there and that Madara was speaking to some sort of bird. He said something to it about Aoi-san having no chakra, and being "perfect" for something. I didn't want him to see me, so I left before I could hear anything else."

"So you are saying that Madara is in contact with someone outside the Akatsuki, and this person wants Aoi-san for something?" asked Pein.

Itachi nodded.

"I don't like it. What should we do?" asked Konan.

"I already asked Sasori-san to keep an eye on her," answered Itachi. "Deidara-san will also probably look after her, since he seems to like her."

"I will look after her as well," decided Konan. "I will watch her from the shadows, and come to her aid if she needs it."

"Good thinking, Konan-san," said Pein. "Aoi-san will probably feel most comfortable with you, since you are also a woman. You should start to talk to her at lunch today."

The blue-haired origami artist nodded. "Do you want me to try to find out more info about Madara's mysterious contact?"

"Yes," replied the pierced man. "But please, do be careful, Konan-san. I would hate to lose you."

Konan nodded again, and Itachi felt slightly relieved. But something was still nagging at the back of his mind.

* * *

Obito smirked as he listened to Pein, Itachi, and Konan discuss what to do to protect Aoi from him. _It's rather hilarious. They think that they're controlling everything, when in actuality I am pulling the strings. _The older Uchiha chucked. He had known Itachi was by his door when he was talking to his contact's bird, who recorded everything. He didn't care if Itachi had seen him and the bird; he knew he'd never discover who he was contacting. Not until it was too late. _Plus, it's fun to mess with people. _He thought of Deidara, whom he loved to torment with his Tobi persona. _Especially him. I love toying with his_ _mind_. He thought of what he had planned and smirked beneath his mask. _Soon. It will all happen soon. _Unlike Sasori, Obito was patient. He would wait until the time was right…

* * *

**EDIT 2012:**

**Once again, I edited a lot of the phrasing to make this sound more like my new writing style. I also made Sasori a lot more apathetic towards Aoi, and Itachi being less protective. (However, he still is a bit protective, but only because he doesn't trust 'Madara'.) **

**I added some extra dialogue between Aoi and Sasori to show that Aoi knows that the only reason she's still alive is that she is useful to the Akatsuki at the moment.**

**I also changed Deidara's backstory so that it matches up more with his canon one. **

**Because Deidara trained his left eye t counter genjutsu, I made it harder for Itachi to successfully use the Sharingan on him.**

**I edited Obito's part as well. I'm pretty sure he doesn't like his contact (whom I'm pretty sure all of you know, since you've probably read this before, in the original story), but he allied himself with them because he has a plan, and he's trying to manipulate everyone. **

I hope Pein and Konan (Konan especially) are not OOC. I took Konan to be a person who can be fiercely protective. She also hates 'Madara'.

And speaking of the masked man, I hope I made him creepy enough. (Don't worry, though; he'll still have some cute Tobi moments when he's with the rest of the organization.)

I think this was better than the last chapter (I hope).


	7. Chapter Six

**EDIT 2012:**

**I rewrote this chapter to match my new style. I also changed Obito's interrogation technique, as well as Deidara's and Sasori's concern for Aoi. (She's still just a source of information for them; it will take awhile for them to consider her a person, XD.)**

Welcome to Chapter Six! This chapter takes place a week later than the last one. This is because I wanted time to progress a bit faster.

Thank you to all who reviewed; all of you make my day, and I'm so glad that people actually like this story.

*Warning: This chapter has violence, frightening moments, and language*

I don't own Naruto (If I did, the Akatsuki would have never died, lol)

* * *

-Chapter Six: Suspicions-

A week had passed since Aoi had been summoned to the Akatsuki lair. She was starting to feel at home with the S-Class missing-nin, and was surprised at the fact. Yes, she liked the Akatsuki, but she'd never imagined she'd feel comfortable around anyone, especially not a group of murderers. Sure, she was still unsure of Obito, but as long as he kept up his Tobi persona around her, she was fine with him. She considered Deidara and Sasori to be her closest allies, though they (and by 'they', it was mostly Deidara) mostly spoke to her only when she spoke to them first.

The brunette was sitting on the floor in her, Deidara's and Sasori's room, drawing yet again. Something dawned on her, and she put her pencil down and closed the sketchbook. "Hey, Sasori-san? What day is it today?"

The redhead looked up from working on his puppet. "It is November 26. Why do you ask?"

Aoi's eyes slightly widened. "November 26? That means…I missed Thanksgiving."

"What is 'Thanksgiving'?" asked Sasori.

"It's a holiday where someone's entire family gets together to eat a huge meal and be thankful for the year," Aoi explained. "It's on the last Thursday of November, which was the twenty-fifth. Yesterday. Though I wouldn't have missed much; I would have celebrated it with just my parents this year." She laughed hollowly. "My birthday was also yesterday. I'm eighteen now."

"You are upset? I thought people were supposed to be happy on their birthday," asked the puppet master, his eyes narrowing.

"I've never cared for my birthday. It's the same thing every year: my parents and I go out to dinner, and afterwards I open some gifts that I never even want. In a sense, instead of being homesick, I'm relieved that I can finally have a birthday where I can just do what _I _want to do."

"What exactly do you want to do?" asked Sasori.

"I just want to stay here and draw all day. It's relaxing," replied Aoi.

Sasori curtly nodded. The brunette realized that he probably knew the feeling, since he loved to work on his puppets so much.

Aoi went back to drawing, while the redhead went back to working on his puppet. The peaceful silence was broken when Deidara walked out of the bathroom, slamming the door shut behind him. He was wearing nothing but his Akatsuki pants, and his hair was still wet from the shower he just took. Aoi looked away, blushing. She still wasn't used to seeing shirtless men, even after all the time she spent living at the base with the nearly all-male Akatsuki.

"Like what you see?" joked Deidara, wearing his ever-present smirk.

"Shut up!" muttered Aoi. She noticed that Sasori shook his head, pinching the bridge of his nose in irritation, and she tried to hold back a chuckle.

When the puppet master first confronted Deidara about the scars on his back, he was extremely angry at both him and Itachi. He did feel relieved that he didn't have to hide them anymore, so he was soon back to his normal self after a day or two. However, he still never looked Itachi in the eye, and Aoi assumed it was because he was embarrassed that the Uchiha defeated him so easily yet again. Most of the time, he tried to ignore him.

"Come on, Aoi-san! You don't want to miss dinner!" called the blond, hastily putting on a shirt. "Kisame's making it tonight; it should be better than the crap Hidan usually cooks for us, un."

"Where's Hidan-san?" Aoi asked. She hadn't seen the immortal for awhile, and was curious about where he was.

"Oh, he and Kakuzu-san are on a mission right now," answered Deidara. He noticed Aoi's slightly alarmed look and quickly continued. "They're just gathering information. I don't believe they'll die any time soon, especially after you told them what to look out for, un."

The brunette was relieved. Even though Hidan had scared her, she was beginning to get comfortable around the silver-haired Jashinist. Kakuzu might have been a greedy miser in the manga, but he had been nothing but polite to her the few times he interacted with her. She didn't want anything bad to happen to the pair.

"Come on, let's go, un! I don't want all the good food to be gone!" said the Iwa-nin, tapping his feet.

"All right, all right, Deidara-san!" exclaimed Aoi. She and the blond took off running down the hallway, heading toward the kitchen.

* * *

Once they got there, they saw that Kisame had prepared shrimp and crab.

"It smells delicious!" Aoi tilted her head. "I didn't know Kisame-san could cook."

"Neither did we," responded Deidara. "Pein-sama assigned each of us a day to cook, but since we got lazy, we made Hidan-san do it just to annoy him. His cooking is shit, though, so I have no idea why we still make him prepare our meals. One day, Kisame-danna got tired of burnt food, so he cooked instead. Let me tell you, his meal was one-hundred percent better than Hidan's."

"Damn right it was." The shark-like man smirked and cracked his neck. "Just don't expect this all the time; I have better things to do than live in the kitchen like a wife."

"I'm glad you chose today to cook," Aoi said quietly, so quietly that Deidara assumed that she was talking more to herself than to Kisame. "I'll have a nice birthday dinner. Well, belated birthday dinner, since it was yesterday."

"It was your birthday? We should celebrate with explosions!" The bomber smiled, itching for an excuse to blow something up.

"If you do, I want to be there for when Kakuzu rips your limbs off because of all the money he'd have to spend on damage repair," Kisame snickered.

Deidara grimaced at the image. The Taki-nin might seem to be polite to those who didn't know him well, but if his precious money was messed with, the best-case scenario was that someone would be severely maimed. He decided that now would be the best time to change the subject. "So your birthday was yesterday, Aoi-san? Homesick?" He didn't see the brunette display many emotions, and was interested to see her reaction. His smirk drooped a bit when the girl's eyes hardened, making their grey color seem steely.

"Homesick?" she chuckled. "I'm actually not sure. I miss my parents, of course, but everyone else?" She paused, tilting her head. "You probably already know this, but I really wasn't liked in my world. I was the school weirdo, the freak. It's my fault, I suppose, for preferring the arts instead of being obsessed with the latest fashions and the hottest guys." She looked straight into Deidara's visible eye, the intensity of her stare surprising him. "Don't pity me, though; I'm not some whiny damsel in distress, nor some emo kid looking for attention. I didn't cry over the fact that I didn't have friends, nor did I complain. I embraced the solitude, and used it to advance my artistic skills." She paused, clenching her fists. "As for me being here, I guess it's destiny. I know you really don't care about me, and I should feel the same about you, but I do care. I know too much about you to be apathetic. I might be only a tool for this organization, but I accept my fate. I will help you out in any way I can." Some of the ice left Aoi's eyes, and she lowered her head. "You all are the closest thing to friends that I have."

The blond was, for once, speechless. He expected Aoi to cry, or at least complain that she was celebrating her birthday with a bunch of criminals who didn't give a damn about her, but instead, her response was so…cold. Despite his supposedly-uncaring attitude, Deidara was good at picking up on the emotions of others. He knew that, in contrast to her words, the constant loneliness hurt her deeply. _She must be desperate for companionship if she's so willing to latch onto _us_. _

"Dinner's ready!" Kisame's voice boomed, shattering the emotionally-heavy moment. Aoi blinked the remaining coldness out of her eyes and cracked her neck.

Soon, everyone who ate walked into the kitchen, and sat in their usual seats: Pein and Konan sat next to each other, Kisame sat across from Itachi, and Aoi was sandwiched between the Uchiha and Deidara. Tobi, of course, sat next to Deidara, while Zetsu sat across from him. Hidan and Kakuzu's seats were empty, reminding Deidara of how much quieter the meal would be without the immortal's constant swearing.

The blond—as well as the rest of the organization—was shocked when he saw Sasori enter the room. He never came to meals; he didn't even have a seat at the table. But the redhead just walked over and sat in Hidan's chair.

"Nice of you to join us, Sasori-san," said Pein. Deidara saw that even his leader was surprised.

"Yes," he said. "I wanted to see what you actually do at meals."

Deidara narrowed his eyes, unsure of what to make of this situation. He started to have an idea, but the notion was so unlike his partner that he dismissed the thought and concentrated on getting the most shrimp he could before Kisame took it all.

After dinner, Sasori decided to go back to his room rather than help clean up. The rest of the Akatsuki—minus Pein and Konan—cleared off the table. Since Kisame cooked the meal, he didn't have to do the dishes this time. Instead, that duty fell on Deidara and Itachi.

_Great! I'm stuck with Uchiha? _the blond thought angrily. _I have no luck!_

Neither the bomber nor Itachi noticed that Aoi had left the kitchen, with Tobi leaving after her…

* * *

Aoi really didn't want to get dragged into washing the dishes, so she decided to leave before Deidara and Itachi saw her. She found herself walking down an unfamiliar hallway, and realized that she had made a wrong turn somewhere.

"Looking for your room?" a deep voice asked.

The brunette whirled around, coming face-to-face with Tobi. "W-what do you want, Tobi-san?" she stuttered. _Obito decided to make himself known to me. This is bad._

"Cut the crap, _Aoi-chibi_, I know you know who I really am," stated the masked man.

Aoi decided to play dumb. "I don't know what you're talking about. What's the matter, Tobi-san? What happened to your voice?"

Before she could even blink, the older Uchiha had one hand tightly grabbing her neck and the other on her forehead, forcing the back of her head against the wall. "I know you know who I really am, so why don't you stop acting dumb and tell me what you know. I have a feeling Itachi held back some information he gleaned from you."

Aoi shook her head. She told herself that she wouldn't reveal anything to Obito and damn it, she would stick to her word.

The hand around her neck got even tighter, and it was becoming difficult for her to breathe. "I could always use Mangekyo on you," Obito pondered aloud, "but what fun would that be? I want to make you scream in reality, telling me what you know when you can't take the pain anymore."

"Reality? Like when Kakashi killed Rin?" Aoi managed to cough out. She realized she went too far when the slightly bored look in Obito's visible eye twisted into one of pure rage. Before she had time to brace herself for pain, the masked man threw her against the opposite wall. Her head spun, and she found that she couldn't get up.

"I wonder how your leg would break if you fell down the stairs. What would the angle be?" Without hesitating, Obito stomped on her leg, grinding the heel of his foot against the now-broken bone. Aoi screamed, her vision going blurry from the severe pain. She reached her arm out as a weak gesture of defense, but it was kicked away. She screamed again when her leg was moved, feeling the bone poke through her skin.

"Scream all you want," sneered Obito. "This particular hallway is soundproof. Now be smart and tell me everything!"

Even though she was in pain, she shook her head. She didn't want to betray Konan, Nagato, or the jinchuriki.

"Are you masochistic, or are you just stupid?" hissed the older Uchiha. "Pein won't let me kill you, but he said nothing about interrogation."

Aoi still shook her head. She was not going to let herself be the weak captive who ruined her allies' plans because she couldn't take a little torture.

Suddenly, a burst of pain exploded in her stomach, and she realized that Obito kicked her. Coughing violently, Aoi felt her head spinning, and her vision blurring even more.

"It seems as though you're more loyal to Pein than I thought," the masked man mused aloud. "I'll try again later."

Aoi felt herself being kicked in the stomach once more before passing out.

* * *

Once Aoi was unconscious, Obito roughly picked her up and carried her into the main hallway. This would have been the perfect opportunity to deliver the girl to his contact, but since he wasn't with the rest of the Akatsuki, he would be placed under suspicion if she were to have disappeared. _Soon I will get what I asked for. I just need to wait for the perfect moment to send her to him. _The masked man stopped thinking when he reached his destination: the stairs leading up to the storage closet hallway. He carelessly dropped the girl at the foot of them, making sure she was facing the proper way before leaving. Grabbing some towels and a bucket of water from the nearest bathroom, he proceeded to clean up the blood from his unsuccessful interrogation.

* * *

Deidara was annoyed. Not only did he have to do the dishes with Itachi, he also was roped into watching some stupid documentary about sharks with Kisame. _Then again, everyone else watched it too. Everyone but Aoi. _He was puzzled as to where the girl went; he expected to hear from her sooner. "Hey, Sasori-danna, do you think the girl got lost, un?"

The redhead, who was walking with him, just shrugged. "How should I know?"

The bomber was about to say something else when he saw something, _someone, _lying at the foot of a staircase. "What the hell?"

Aoi was unconscious, her leg bent at an impossible angle. Deidara noticed that some of the bone poked through her pants, and that her injured leg was surrounded by a small pool of blood.

"Trust the stupid girl to fall down the stairs and knock herself out." Sasori rolled his eyes, nudging the brunette with his foot.

"I don't know. Would her bone break that severely if she just tripped, un?" Something in Deidara's gut told him that she didn't just fall. He knelt down and gently picked her up. "I'm taking her back with us."

"Do what you want; just don't bother me."

When the two got back to their room, Deidara gently placed Aoi on the ground on her back. He wasn't a medic-nin, but he wanted to look at the wound. He rolled her bloodstained pants up to her knee and tilted his head. "Hey, Danna? Could you come over here, un?"

"I told you not to bother me, brat!" Despite his supposed indifference, the puppeteer ended up walking over to the blond. "What is it?"

"From this wound, doesn't it look like someone stomped on her leg, un?"

Sasori knelt down, narrowing his eyes to study the injury. "You are correct. Are you suggesting that someone broke her leg and dropped her by the stairs to make it look like an accident?"

Deidara nodded. "And look at her neck. It's all bruised." He pointed to the dark, finger-shaped marks encircling the girl's throat like a demented necklace and grimaced. "Isn't she supposed to be our source of information, un? Why did someone want to hurt her if she could be of use to us later?"

"I do not know. All I know is that everyone watched the documentary with us. Everyone but one."

"That's right. Tobi wasn't there. You think that idiot did this?"

Sasori stood back up and shrugged. "He's an honorary member of this organization for a reason; he has to be dangerous. Maybe the childish act is all a façade. Or maybe he thought he was helping us out by trying to interrogate her himself. Whatever the reason, I will bring this up with Pein-sama; I doubt he will be happy that one of his rules was broken. None of us were supposed to harm her."

"Can you at least fix her leg before you go, un?"

"I am not as good of a medic-nin as Kakuzu-san, but I will try." Kneeling back down, he placed his hands on the wound and closed his eyes. Slowly, the bone slipped back into its proper place, though the area still remained swollen. "That's the best I can do, at the moment. She'll have to wait for Kakuzu-san to heal the rest." He shook his head. "Stupid girl."

"I don't think it's her fault, un." Deidara was puzzled as to why his partner was more irritated than usual.

The redhead said nothing, only getting up and sauntering out of the room. He slammed the door behind him, and Deidara just rolled his eyes. _What a drama queen._

* * *

**EDIT 2012:  
I think this has to be my most-edited chapter yet. I completely rewrote the last part of it. I changed Obito's interrogation methods, as well as Sasori's and Deidara's reactions to Aoi's injuries. (I made them care less, though I think I still made DeiDei care a bit too much… Hmm…)**

Anyone else hating Obito right now? I know I am; he's such a sadist. …Then again, Aoi taunted him with the whole reason he became evil, so that was a stupid idea on her part. I hope everyone was in character, and I hope this didn't suck.

Also, I hope Aoi doesn't seem too emo-ish. I just wanted to make her seem cold because she conditioned herself to act that way.

Kisame's favorite foods are shrimp and crab, so I decided that he'd cook a meal with both shellfish.

I had Deidara address Kisame as Kisame-danna because he uses this honorific in one of the Shippuden omakes. I thought it was really adorable, so I wanted to include it. ^^


	8. Chapter Seven

**EDIT 2012:  
This is another chapter I rewrote quite a bit. (Changing the last chapter affected future chapters.) Once again, I changed how much Sasori and Deidara care for Aoi. (They [but mostly Deidara] are slowly starting to warm up to her.) **

Welcome to Chapter Seven! I hope you all enjoyed the last chapter! Obito's such a creeper! I like Tobi, though. (who doesn't, XD!)

Many thanks to everyone who reviewed! I'm glad people are enjoying the story!

Since this is posted on Christmas Eve, Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays! C:

*Warning, this chapter contains language*

I don't own Naruto *sigh*

* * *

-Chapter Seven: Terror-

_Damn it! I was too careless! _Obito cursed as paced across his room. _Whoever finds her is bound to be suspicious when they see the severity of the wounds. Why didn't I just break her leg cleanly? _Pausing for a second, he narrowed his eyes. _No, I needed to try to get her to reveal all that she knew, though it didn't work out as planned._

He pondered about what to do about this dilemma. He knew that once someone put two and two together, they would go to Pein. Despite his blunder, he hoped that Sasori and Deidara were the ones to find her, and, by taking care of her, got closer to her. He knew his contact wanted revenge on the puppeteer. _And if he finally learns to show emotions around someone, what better revenge would there be than taking away that person and making them suffer? _He smirked; just like his contact, he was interested in seeing the redhead display emotions other than boredom and mild distaste. _As soon as Aoi decides she wants to go outside, everything can begin. _Ever since the brunette came to the base, he was finding it harder and harder to conceal his true nature. While he had previously found it fun to irritate Deidara, he now wanted nothing more than to show the Iwa-nin just how powerful he really was, and, just once, beat him senseless. Yes, being 'Tobi' was fun, but he was getting tired of being pushed around by the blond.

Smirking, he put his mask back on. _I told him she'd want to go outside soon, probably after she recovers. Things are about to get interesting…_

* * *

Deidara was messing with his clay when Aoi finally awoke. She sat bolt upright, wrapping her arms around herself and looked wildly around the room. She didn't know how she got there, but a sense of peace overwhelmed her: she was safe here.

As soon as the blond saw that Aoi had woken up, he got up from his bed and sat on his knees next to her. "So, you're awake. Care to tell me what happened, un? Did you really fall down the stairs?"

Suddenly, the brunette didn't care about hiding Tobi's true nature anymore. She leaned over and hugged Deidara, burying her face in his shirt. Before she could suppress them, tears fell from her eyes.

"Huh?" The bomber stiffened, obviously not used to physical contact

"I-I'm sorry, Deidara-san," she said, once she had stopped crying. "I'm just…scared." The last word was whispered, and her face reddened. _I'm such an idiot! I should be scared of all of these people, but I just hugged Akatsuki's _terrorist bomber_! _

"Who are you scared of, un?" asked the Iwa-nin, tilting his head. "All of us are criminals. We wouldn't be successful if we weren't feared."

"T-Tobi-san," she whispered. Sensing Deidara's discomfort, she let go of him, wrapping her arms around herself once more.

"Did _he_ do this to you?"

The brunette nodded. A fresh wave of pain hit her, and she hissed, grabbing her stomach. "He broke my leg."

"What about the bruises, un?"

"Yeah, those too." She looked at the ground. "I just feel so weak."

"You might be weak, un," replied the blond, "but we Akatsuki are all trained, S-Class shinobi. You don't even have any chakra. It wasn't a fair fight."

Aoi nodded, sleepily. Though she was in pain, she was tired. "Since Kakuzu-san's gone, who fixed my leg? It still hurts, but it's better than before."

"Sasori-danna," answered Deidara. When she looked at him strangely, he continued. "Since he makes human puppets, he needed to know basic human anatomy. He also knows a bit of medical ninjutsu. Not as much as Kakuzu-san, but enough to fix your leg, un."

"Sasori-san," she muttered, her eyes closing.

"What did Tobi want, anyway?" Deidara asked. "Uchiha already scanned your mind."

Even if Aoi wanted to answer, she was too far gone. She only shrugged before falling unconscious once more.

* * *

Sasori walked swiftly to Pein and Konan's room, wanting to get this discussion over with as soon as possible. Without bothering to knock, he threw the door open.

"Sasori-san! What is the meaning of this?" asked Pein, looking up angrily from his paperwork.

"Aoi-san was just tortured by someone." The puppet master tried to sound unbiased, but for some reason, the words came out angrier than he intended. _What the hell?_

"What do you mean, Sasori-san?" asked the orange-haired man, his eyes narrowing.

The redhead began to explain what had just occurred. When he was finished, Pein stated, "Are you sure it was Tobi? Maybe Aoi-san did fall down the stairs, and broke her leg that way."

"Pein-sama, there were bruises in the shape of fingers around her neck. I doubt those came from a fall down the stairs. Someone grabbed her and held her that way for awhile. And since everyone minus Tobi was in the common room watching Kisame's stupid shark movie, that would make him the logical suspect."

"Okay, okay, Sasori-san, I will talk to him," answered the pierced man. "But I will not have you spreading these accusations around the base. Keep them to yourself."

The puppet master narrowed his eyes. "I mean it, Sasori-san," Pein warned. "That's an order!"

"Yes, Leader-sama," he muttered, bowing to the orange-haired Akatsuki leader. He knew it was time for him to leave, so he quickly walked out of the room. He also wanted to see how Aoi was, oddly enough. _Why do I even care? I've killed countless people and never felt a damn thing. Why is this so different? Why am I so angry? What's wrong with me?_ He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He had to calm down. He let his face drift back into its usual apathetic façade as he walked back to his room.

When he opened the door, he saw that Aoi was sleeping on the floor, with Deidara sitting in a chair next to her, keeping watch. "Something is very wrong, Sasori-danna. Why would Tobi do this, un?" he asked, gesturing to the sleeping girl. "He's never shown any malicious behavior before, unless you count being generally annoying." He narrowed his eyes, presumably in thought. "The girl nearly had a breakdown when she first woke up; she was terrified. It was actually sort of funny, in a dark way, especially since she's scared of _Tobi_, of all people."

"I do not know why, brat. Why are you asking me?" asked Sasori. "When I talked to Pein-sama, he said he would talk to Tobi. However, I don't think he believed me, and told me to keep my suspicions to myself."

"In other words, he's going to get away with this, un." Deidara looked upset, which Sasori found curious.

"What do you suppose he wanted from the girl?" he asked.

"I have no clue," the Iwa-nin replied. "He sure did a number on her, though. Sadistic little shit."

"Says the man whose idea of art is making people explode," countered Sasori.

"I don't prolong their suffering; I kill them fast, un," retorted the blonde.

Aoi whimpered in her sleep, and both stopped arguing.

"I should probably wrap up her injury," stated the puppet master. Deidara nodded. The redhead grabbed a roll of bandages from Deidara's first aid kit and knelt down, slowly wrapping up her leg. "It is not completely healed, but I fixed the worst of it. Most of the pain should be gone; she just shouldn't put a lot of weight on it. Hopefully Kakuzu-san will come back soon; she won't ever have full use of her leg if he returns too late."

* * *

Five days had passed since Aoi was attacked, yet she still wanted to stay in the room. Sasori and Deidara tried to convince her otherwise, even by goading her with taunts, but nothing worked. Besides showering, changing her clothes, and using the bathroom, the brunette barely moved from her spot on the floor.

Deidara was worried that something was wrong with her mind. Her eyes had lost their usual sparkle, and she rarely spoke. However, he noticed that this particular day was different; a little bit of that sparkle had returned.

"Deidara-san?" asked Aoi. "Can you take me outside? I want to breathe some fresh air, and I want to draw some landscapes."

"Sure, Aoi-san," replied the blond. "We'll go outside, un. Tobi's not even here today; he went on a mission with Zetsu-san." He was happy that the girl had taken an interest in something, a fact which surprised him. The only other person he would consider a friend was back in Iwagakure, though he left her a long time ago. He thought he had moved past his desire for friends, but he guessed he was wrong.

As she grabbed her sketchbook and pencils, she put her weight onto her bad leg when she tried to open the door. She stumbled a bit before she caught herself, switching her weight to her good leg. "Why can't I walk properly?" she asked, a twinge of worry present in her voice.

"Sasori no danna tried his best, but he couldn't heal your leg fully, un." _This isn't good; she's starting to lose the use of that leg. If Kakuzu doesn't come back soon, Sasori might be forced to replace it with a puppet leg. _Just imagining his partner amputating Aoi's leg made him shudder.

"I understand," said Aoi, snapping him out of his thoughts. "I don't blame Sasori-san, he did what he could." She smiled weakly. "Let's go! I want to see what I can draw!"

* * *

Once the two had gotten outside, Aoi sat under one of the few trees she could find and started to draw the city in front of her. She smiled; she hadn't drawn in awhile, and it felt good. Her mind was distracted from the growing loss of movement in her leg, and the feeling of Obito's hand around her throat. Yes, this was relaxing for her. Deidara had gone ahead, looking for a place to set off his bombs. He thought it would be all right if Aoi was alone, as long as she stayed where she was.

However, the brunette was getting bored. She was finished with her drawing, and wanted to move somewhere else so she could draw something different. She didn't think it would hurt if she went exploring. Despite the fact that Ame was an industrial city, there was a small forest in the back of the base. It had more trees than in the front of the base, and Aoi was fascinated with how the city left this little piece of land intact. _Well, Pein _is _the leader of Ame, so I guess he has control over what buildings go where_.

She looked down when she saw something move past her foot. She let her breath out in relief when she realized it was just a white snake. She was intrigued by the creature and wanted to draw it. She followed it deeper and deeper into the forest. A voice in the back of her head was nagging her to go back to Deidara, but she thought it would be okay if she drew the snake before leaving.

It finally stopped when it reached a clearing, and slithered onto a large rock, presumably to sun itself, like all cold-blooded creatures do. Aoi looked at the snake once more and began to draw it. Suddenly, she heard twigs snapping behind her, and footsteps. Thinking that it was Deidara trying to scare her, she sighed. "I know it's you, Deidara-san; don't think that you can scare me!"

She whirled around, ready to see the blond and his trademark smirk, but the man in front of her was _definitely _not Deidara. He was much taller, with long black hair and pasty skin. But his most striking feature was his eyes; they looked serpentine, and were the color of warm butterscotch. Her eyes widened. This was a man she feared as equally as Obito.

"Hello, little one," he said, his voice just above a whisper. "Madara told me a lot about you." The snake-like man suddenly grabbed Aoi's bad leg and squeezed it, making her drop to the ground, black forming around her vision. She knew she was going to be taken. As a last-ditch effort, she wrote something on the page with the snake drawing. She bit her thumb, stamping it on the page so Deidara would get the message if he found it.

"Drawing won't help you, you stupid girl," he chuckled, kicking the pencil out of her hands.

"Let me go!" rasped Aoi as the man grabbed her neck and squeezed a certain point on it.

"I don't think so, girl," he said. "Madara traded you for some information on a new jutsu. And since he told me of your…uniqueness, I knew I just needed you to test my newest project. Not to mention all of the information you have about the Akatsuki. You're the perfect specimen!"

Aoi finally closed her eyes, giving into unconsciousness once more.

* * *

As Aoi's eyes rolled back into her head, the man laughed, licking his lips. "You're the perfect specimen indeed!" When the brunette fell unconscious, he roughly picked her up and swung her over his shoulder. Once he made it out of the forest, he could hear his blond replacement calling out for the girl. _How sweet. _S_oon, he and Sasori will suffer, if Madara's info is correct. _He smiled cruelly. _And the girl; she will suffer the most… _He was glad that he invested in a hideout just outside of Amegakure; it was finally paying off.

* * *

Deidara had looked everywhere for Aoi, and couldn't find her. He had finally started to walk through the forest. _Maybe she fell asleep while she was drawing in there. Stupid girl; I told her to stay put! _

He stopped when he came to a clearing, seeing Aoi's sketchbook and colored pencils on the ground. However, the girl herself was not there. _Where could she be? _He saw that the sketchbook was open. On the page was a beautiful drawing of a white snake. The drawing was marred by three hastily scrawled words. And a bloody thumbprint. _Damn! It must be written in her original language! _He couldn't understand a word of what Aoi had written. He looked at the drawing again. _A white snake? Why does that sound so familiar? _Then it hit him. _No! Don't let her be taken by _him! _Why is he always involved in everything?_ Even in his thoughts, he spat out the name. _Orochimaru!_

* * *

**EDIT 2012:  
It's really hard to make Sasori and Deidara completely apathetic towards Aoi, especially since she's sharing a room with them, so I decided that they (or at least Deidara), will warm up to her a bit more. However, they are still much colder to her than they were in the original version.  
Yes, Orochimaru will still be included in this story, but his entire character will be reworked. He'll still be one-hundred percent creepy, but more in the mad-scientist way and less in the perverted way. (Haha, I think Orochi-creeper loves science too much to be romantically interested in any person. …Poor Kabuto… Haha, I kid, I kid…XD) **

I know it's cliché, but I wanted to include Orochimaru into the story somehow. If any of you guessed him to be Obito's contact, you were right!

At the beginning of the story, I know it sounds cheesy that Aoi says to Deidara that she's scared. However, I think that is a realistic reaction. I hope she doesn't sound too much like a Mary-Sue.

The friend Deidara is referencing in this chapter is Kurotsuchi. (Am I the only one that always wants to write 'Kuroshitsuji' when writing her name? XDD)

And if any of you are wondering about when Pein confronts Obito, that conversation will be in the next chapter.

Also, as of right now, Orochimaru still thinks that Obito is Madara, so he will address him as such.

I hope this wasn't bad. Once again, I hope you all have happy holidays~


	9. Chapter Eight

**EDIT 2012:  
Once again, I lessened the concern Sasori and Deidara have for Aoi (though Deidara is becoming friendlier towards her…). Also, I made Orochimaru's experiment more detailed, as well as omitting his romantic attraction to Aoi. I also changed some of Kabuto's personality. **

I hope all of you enjoyed the last chapter! Now the plot of the first arc of the story can finally begin! I am just letting you know now that Aoi will NOT be getting any special powers. I know that the OC getting kidnapped by Orochimaru is very cliché, but it really fit for the story. I hope my take on this overused plot is slightly more original.

*Warning: this chapter is darker than any of the previous ones, and contains language and violence*

I'd like to thank everyone who reviewed; all of you are awesome!

Since this will be posted on New Year's Eve, happy new year, everyone!

Nope, I still don't own Naruto.

* * *

-Chapter Eight: Nightmare-

Pein sighed as he thought of the conversation he had with Madara five days before…

_"I don't know what you gain from terrorizing the girl," he said._

_ "I don't know what you're talking about," stated the masked man._

_ "Don't play dumb. Sasori-san came to me tonight and said that you attacked Aoi-san and broke her leg. Why would you do that?"_

_ "That stupid puppet is more trouble than he's worth. I just wanted to interrogate the little bitch myself, since I had a feeling Itachi was holding some of his knowledge back." Pein could sense that Madara was rolling his eyes. "Yes, I broke her leg, but it's not my fault she's in so much pain; she's weaker than a genin-in-training." _

_ Pein wasn't happy. "Madara, I want you to stay away from her; we want her to help us out, and we can't gain her trust if she's too terrified of us to comply." Before the older Uchiha could object, Pein continued. "Because of this, Sasori-san _and _Deidara-san are suspicious of you. Don't you care that your cover could be blown?" He didn't add that he himself was starting to get suspicious of the masked man. "I am sending you and Zetsu-san on a mission to gather more info on the One-Tail. I want to know much more than I do now so that the team I send after it won't die. Plus, I need for everyone to cool down; this tension is starting to affect the performance of this organization."_

_ "Fine, fine," said Madara. "I'll go on your mission. When do I leave?"_

_ "Tomorrow morning, Madara. You will brief Zetsu-san when you see him."_

_ "What, no honorific? I'm offended!" said the masked man. When he saw Pein glaring at him, he turned away. "I'll let Zetsu know, now."_

_ The pierced man nodded, opening his door so Madara could leave._

Pein pinched the bridge of his nose. On one hand, he was getting suspicious of Madara, especially from what Itachi had told him and now this incident with Aoi. On the other hand, he couldn't kick him out of the organization; he needed the older Uchiha's power and information for his goal of world domination to succeed. The pierced man sighed again; he felt that he was losing control of the Akatsuki.

Just as he thought things couldn't get any worse, Deidara burst through the door, looking infuriated, though Pein could sense the smallest hint of another emotion—worry—in his eyes. "Pein-sama," he said, breathing heavily, as if he ran a great distance, "Aoi-san is gone!"

"What happened?" asked Pein. _What's wrong _now?

"I'm not exactly sure, but we were outside and she just disappeared. She left this, though. Tell me if it looks familiar." The blonde held up a drawing of a white snake. Three words were written on top of the drawing, and a bloody thumbprint was hastily stamped below it. "Can you read it?"

Pein fortunately could; the language jutsu he performed on Aoi worked both ways. He was now able to understand her language, just as she was able to understand his. He looked at the page, inwardly groaning. _First Madara, now _him? _Why did he have to get pulled into this? _Aloud, he said, "The words on the paper are 'Aoi, taken, Orochimaru'."

The Iwa-nin's visible eye widened. "I was right," he finally said. "How the hell did he get past our defenses, un?"

"What I'd like to know is how he knew about Aoi-san," added the orange-haired man. He had a growing suspicion Madara had been in contact with the snake sannin, but wasn't completely sure. "I want you to go to Sasori-san and explain what happened. He, you, and Kakuzu—once he gets back—will have the job of bringing the girl back here. I don't want her information to fall into the hands of that traitor."

"Yes, Leader-sama," said Deidara, bowing. He then took off running toward his room.

* * *

Deidara clenched his fists, his stomach tightening (though he wasn't completely sure why). His suspicions were indeed correct; Aoi had been taken by Orochimaru. He had only met the snake-like man once, right after he had become a member of the Akatsuki. He and Sasori were on a mission when the redhead ran into his former partner. The two had grudges against each other because of an incident with Itachi that caused the sannin to be kicked out of the organization. He remembered that Orochimaru had stared at him with an expression of both malice and hunger on his face. It was a gaze that haunted him to this very day. Later, Sasori had told the blond that the sannin was obsessed with collecting people with rare kekkei-genkai, which he had. Orochimaru had wanted to take him and experiment on him, yet didn't, since the puppet master was present.

Now the same thing was happening to Aoi, someone who he finally realized he considered an ally, despite her weak nature. He squinted, wondering what the former Akatsuki member would do to her when he discovered that she had no chakra, and no kekkei-genkai to experiment on. When he reached his room, he threw open the door, eying the room for his partner.

"Brat, what is the matter with you?" the redhead asked, angrily looking up from reading one of his many books on puppetry.

"Aoi-san has been taken by Orochimaru, un."

Sasori dropped the book. He tried to look indifferent, but the bomber could see a look of obvious anger flash across his partner's face, though it only appeared for a second. "How the hell did he get onto the base's grounds?"

"I don't know! Why would he even want her? He'd be able to sense right away that she had no chakra, un!" Deidara paced the room. "Pein-sama said that once Kakuzu-san came back, us three would go on a mission to retrieve her." He paused, looking angry. "She's more trouble than she's worth. Stupid girl." Though his words were sharp, Deidara wasn't blaming Aoi; he was the one who was supposed to keep an eye on her, and he failed. He was angry at himself for not even sensing that Orochimaru was on their land.

"Let's hope he finds something worth testing on her," Sasori said darkly. "I also hope that she has a high tolerance to pain. However, if it comes down to it, I hope she dies on his operating table."

"What do you mean, Sasori-danna?"

"Let's just say death is not the worst thing that could possibly happen to her, especially since she is now associated with us," answered the puppet master.

"You don't mean…?"

"Yes. Interrogation, unnecessary torture, scientific experimentation. The list goes on and on," stated Sasori. "Orochimaru is a sadist; he likes to cause the most pain he can inflict and watch his victims beg for mercy before he kills them. My guess is that he will use any method possible to get information about us from her."

Deidara was sickened. "Why don't we just leave right now? Why do we have to wait for Kakuzu-san, un? This could jeopardize the entire organization!"

"You don't think I know that? Because of her, everything is unraveling! But we don't even know where the hell the bastard is," explained the redhead. "My guess is that Leader-sama is doing some research about where his location could be. Plus, we need Kakuzu-san if the girl is seriously injured when we do find her, which she most definitely will be, if she is alive." His eyes narrowed. "Though I don't think she will remain alive once we bring her back, if Pein-sama discovers that she indeed did leak information."

Deidara seemed to deflate, sinking onto his bed. What Sasori said made sense, but for some reason, the thought of the thin brunette dying by one of their own hands upset him more than the thought of her dying by Orochimaru's.

"Let me tell you this," said the puppet master, eyes gleaming with hatred, "if I get my hands on Orochimaru, he's dead, though it has nothing to do with the girl and her stupidity. I've been wanting to repay him for the betrayal for a long time."

The blond had was surprised to hear the emotion in his partner's voice. "You took the words right out of my mouth, Sasori-danna. He's dead once we find him!"

* * *

Three days had passed since Orochimaru had taken the girl from Ame. Every time she started to wake up, he would render her unconscious once more. He only stopped to eat and sleep; he wanted to get back to his base as soon as possible. He hated carrying the girl, but he knew the effort would be worth it if his experiment was a success. _Even if it isn't, I will have much fun watching her suffer through the procedure, _he thought, smirking.

Once he was finally back at the base, he found his assistant working on installing new cameras to the fighting arena. "Kabuto!" he barked. "I need you to prepare Operating Room Three for the procedure. I have successfully retrieved the specimen."

The bespectacled man nodded and hurried off toward the room.

Once the room was ready, with all of the surgical equipment lying on a silver tray next to the operating table, the snake sannin ordered Kabuto to strap the girl's arms, legs, and torso to said table.

"Do you need me to administer the anesthesia?" asked the silver-haired man.

"No, no," chuckled Orochimaru. "I need her fully awake and aware for this particular procedure."

Kabuto nodded, narrowing his eyes. "Do you need me to wake her up?"

"I will do that," stated Orochimaru, "but first…" he used the kunai in his pocket to cut Aoi's shirt off, followed by the tank top. However, he left her bra still on. "The shirt will only get in the way," he explained.

"What exactly are you doing for this experiment?" asked the bespectacled medic-nin.

"I am going to see if chakra can be implanted into a human body," the snake-like man explained. "Since this girl has none for some reason, she is the perfect test subject." After his assistant nodded, Orochimaru concentrated some chakra into his fingers and jolted the girl awake. "Let us begin," he said.

He smiled cruelly when the girl started to squirm when he brought the scalpel to her skin, and felt his blood rush when he sunk it deep into the skin on the middle of her chest, making her scream in pain. She screamed more as he widened the incision. Every time she would fall unconscious, the snake sannin made Kabuto revive her. After more strokes of the scalpel, he felt the knife scrape against her sternum and realized he had cut far enough. By now, Aoi was coughing from screaming so much, and tears continuously fell from her swollen eyes. As Kabuto wiped away the blood pouring out of the wound, the brunette shook from both pain and fear.

"I need your help for this next step." Orochimaru turned to Kabuto, who tilted his head. "I need you to split her sternum, where I made the incision, wide enough so that I can add this." He held up a small, metal cylinder with a blue disk on the top of it.

"Consider it done." Kabuto's hand glowed blue, and he placed it on top of the wound.

Aoi screamed louder than before, her body arching, trying to escape the pain. Soon, her voice gave out, and her mouth remained open, though her cries were silenced.

"Now comes the really fun part," Orochimaru stated. "Here's where we implant the chakra." He stuck the device into the incision, making sure that it fit into the opening his assistant made in her sternum. Aoi thrashed around, screaming silently. "Kabuto! Hold her down!" he ordered. Once the girl was immobilized, the golden-eyed man made sure that the device was positioned correctly before grabbing what looked like a small welding torch. He turned it on and brought it to her skin, cauterizing it to the metal. He smirked in satisfaction as her eyes widened in obvious agony, tears pouring from them. This is what gave him pleasure; watching the pain of others.

Afterwards, Orochimaru let Aoi fall unconscious; he was finished with the procedure. _I hope you survive, Coulter Aoi, _he thought, stroking her face. _I want to have more fun with you. _"Kabuto!" he barked. "Take her to Cell Seven!"

"Yes, Orochimaru-sama," said the medic-nin, un-strapping the girl from the lab table. He roughly picked her up and left the room.

* * *

Once Kabuto reached Cell Seven, he placed her on the ground and chained her to the wall. _Honestly, I hope you die, _he thought. _If you don't, all you'll be in for is more pain. Orochimaru-sama is a _very _ruthless man._ He watched the jerky rise and fall of her practically bare chest and pondered whether or not to kill the girl to put her out of her misery and add her body to his collection. _No, _he decided. _If I do, Orochimaru would kill me. I'm sorry girl, but I value my life._ He left the cell, locking the door behind him.

* * *

Aoi couldn't move; she was in so much pain. Everything hurt: hands, arms, legs, head. But her chest felt the worst; it felt like it was on fire. _What's happening? S_he sobbed, curling herself into a ball. She would have screamed, but found she couldn't since she lost her voice.

Time passed in a blur; Aoi didn't know if she was in the cell for hours, days, or weeks. Water and food were pushed through a slot in the door. She drank the water ravenously, but left the food untouched; she couldn't eat anything without getting violently sick.

Finally, the door opened, and Aoi saw the silver-haired man. _Kabuto. _He unchained her, and pulled her to her feet. "Can you walk?" he asked.

"No," Aoi rasped. She had partially gotten her voice back, even though now it was painful for her to speak.

"Tch," said the medic-nin, roughly picking her up and slinging her over his shoulder. He dropped her on the floor once they were inside a lab. "The chakra implant seems like a failure, Orochimaru-sama," he stated. "Even after three days, the chakra seems…incompatible with her body."

"That's too bad," answered the snake sannin. When she heard his voice, her eyes widened and she shook from fear.

"Should we remove the implant?" asked Kabuto.

"No." Orochimaru smirked. "Maybe it will activate with time. We will document our findings regardless; though this might have been a failure, we can use this info to succeed next time." The snake sannin nodded at Kabuto, who left the room. He then kneeled down to Aoi's level and stroked her face. Reminded of Obito, she flinched, trying to get out of his grasp, aggravating her injuries in the process. "Madara was right," he murmured, so softly that she could barely hear it, "you are weak, but you lived through the procedure. You must have some strength, after all." He leaned in closer, tilting his head. "Maybe I just didn't add enough chakra." Before she could resist, the tall man's hand slammed onto the device. Besides the initial agony that came from the device being agitated, an intense burning pain attacked her chest, then spread throughout her entire body. Aoi tried to suppress her cries, but she couldn't stifle them. Her head spun, and before she knew it, she was on the floor, thrashing around. She felt Orochimaru stomp on her bad leg, but she was too far gone to acknowledge it. She closed her eyes and prepared for more pain when she heard some sort of explosion echo throughout the base.

"We'll finish this discussion later." Orochimaru removed his foot from her leg and left the room.

Aoi let herself sob, curling into the fetal position. She flinched when she heard footsteps enter the room and wrapped her arms around her chest. Thinking that Orochimaru had returned, she tried to get up so she could run away, but failed. She saw a glimpse of the people who entered the room and felt relieved before she let herself sink into unconsciousness.

* * *

Sasori waited for Deidara to set off his bombs before he and Kakuzu walked into the room. They snuck around the entire base looking for Aoi, but couldn't seem to find her anywhere. They had interrogated countless Oto-nin about her before killing them, but no one seemed to know where she was. However, one man said that she was in Lab C, which was where they were headed to.

When the explosion was finally heard, the puppet master saw Orochimaru leaving the room. His blood boiled and he desperately wanted to kill the man, but knew that rescuing Aoi was his first priority, according to Pein. When he was sure that the snake sannin had left the hallway, he quickly signaled to Kakuzu that it was time to enter the room.

When he opened the door, he narrowed his eyes. Aoi lay unconscious on the floor, still wearing the Akatsuki pants, but topless save for a bloodstained bra. He was grateful that _something _was covering her up, but felt surprisingly sickened, considering that he made puppets out of corpses without batting an eye. He didn't want to see her this way; she looked so tiny and vulnerable (more so than usual)_. _He knew she was normally small, but now she looked unhealthy. When he looked closer, he saw that something was stuck to the middle of her chest. Squinting, he touched it, and she cried out. Tilting his head, he studied the device, but found that he was stumped as to what it could be for. Her left leg was broken again, and he rolled her pants up to her knee to assess the damage. Besides being swollen, it was discolored, and Sasori knew that there was a chance she lost the use of it. He gently picked her up, cradling her in his arms, since that was the only way for him to hold her comfortably. _She looks so…dead. _He knew that human skin was typically not as pale as Aoi's was currently, and that their eyes weren't normally as sunken-looking. Turning to Kakuzu, he spoke. "Something's wrong with her."

The Taki-nin grunted. "Let's find Deidara-san and get the hell out of here."

Sasori held the brunette closer to his body in order to warm her up. Yes, he was a puppet, but his heart was still human, so it gave off heat. _You better make it, girl. All of this better not have been for nothing._

* * *

**EDIT 2012:**

**Phew, finally done with this one! Like I said in the A/N before the chapter, I changed a lot of Orochimaru's procedure, as well as Sasori's and Deidara's interest in Aoi. (They're starting to warm up to her a bit, though [haha, more on Deidara's part, XD].) **

And that is the end of Chapter Eight! Whew, this was the darkest chapter I've written for this story, so far. Orochimaru creeps me out more than Obito, XD. I tried to make this not sound cliché. Aoi will not have any powers in later chapters; the experiment failed.

I know, Sasori showing emotions might be a bit OOC for him, but I just wanted to convey how much he hates Orochimaru.

…On another note, poor Kakuzu only had one line in this chapter, X'D.

I hope this chapter was all right!


	10. Chapter Nine

**EDIT 2013:**

**Haha, this one is almost completely re-written. I completely changed Orochimaru's motives, as well as the scene at the end of this chapter.  
Because Orochimaru's motives have changed, this story arc will be very different from the original (though a few plot points will remain the same.)**

**I also made Deidara stronger and more of a strategist than in the original version (just because I moefied him in the original story, and it bugged me, XD). **

This chapter will not be as dark as the last one, but one part really creeped me out when I wrote it, XD. It has to do with Orochimaru (but of course; he's the creepiest creeper in the Naruto world...).

*Warning: This chapter contains a frightening scene, violence, and language* (I'm starting to sound like the movie rating system now, lol).

Thank you for all of your awesome reviews.

A special thank-you goes to **Robine. **I love your reviews~ To answer your question: yes, this story will continue to move at a slow pace, so I'm glad you like how it's not rushed.

Nope, still don't own Naruto. (Darn!)

* * *

-Chapter Nine: Escape-

Once Deidara had set off his bombs, he hurried into Lab H, the room Sasori assigned him. His bombs were supposed to be the diversion; he himself wasn't supposed to be seen. He really hoped that Sasori and Kakuzu found Aoi; he had almost no more clay. Plus, this place just creeped him out, especially the smell of antiseptic and the harsh lights.

His head jerked up as he heard the door open. He rapidly looked around, his heart sinking when he realized there was nowhere he could hide. His heart sunk even further when he saw the person who entered. _Damn. Orochimaru. _He reached into the bag attached to his belt, only to remember that he only had enough clay for one or two more bombs. _This isn't good._

"Hello, Deidara-kun," he said, his voice as smooth as silk. "It's been awhile. Two years, right? You look older."

The blond slowly walked backwards, trying to strategize, as the sannin walked towards him. The closer he got, the more on-edge Deidara got. Something about Orochimaru was…different…from his fellow Akatsuki members, though he wasn't exactly sure what. Though he was an S-Class shinobi, he knew that without his bombs, he was at a disadvantage, especially since he was typically a long-range fighter.

Before the Iwa-nin could even blink, the sannin's hand wrapped around his throat, pushing him against the wall. "Hmm," said the golden-eyed man, unsnapping the blond's Akatsuki cloak, letting it fall to the floor.

_Don't let him get to you. Let him try to scare you; it'll give you time to think._

"I've done some more research on your kekkei-genkai, as well as that kinjutsu scroll you stole. I wonder…" He pulled a kunai out of his shirt pocket and slashed Deidara's shirt down the middle, scratching him in the process. Once he removed the shirt, he traced the pattern of the blonde's extra mouth with the knife. "Aww, you sewed it up? Are you disgusted by your talents?"

"Shut up, un!" Deidara rasped. It was getting harder for him to breathe, and the room was starting to blur. _I just need to hold on a little longer. I'll use my bombs when I'm sure I can kill him. _He used some of the remaining strength he had to spit in the black-haired man's face. "Go to hell, you bastard!" Smirking, he used the position he was in to his advantage and kicked the older man in the stomach.

"Now Dei-kun, that wasn't very nice," hissed Orochimaru, dropping the kunai. Using his other hand, he grabbed the blond's hair and smashed his head into the wall. Letting him drop to the floor, he continued. "You're going to pay for that!"

* * *

_Sasori's new partner is…interesting. _Orochimaru narrowed his eyes. _He doesn't scream. Hmm, I wonder how much pain he will endure before he does. Since that stupid puppet is after the girl, he won't be able to help him. Perfect. If he values the life of his partner, this will destroy_ _him. It's funny to think that the first emotions he'll have are anger and grief…_

He placed his foot on Deidara's chest and started to put pressure on it. As the bomber grunted, more pressure was added. With one swift movement he stomped on the blond, smirking when he heard a cracking noise. He was disappointed when the Iwa-nin only grimaced. He was expecting a different reaction. "Why won't you scream, you little shit?" he kneeled down next to his opponent and violently shook his shoulders. "What's wrong with you?"

Deidara only shook his head, a smirk on his face as he looked up. Suddenly, he lunged forward, knocking Orochimaru off his feet. He tried to punch him in the face, but his broken ribs hindered him a bit. The sannin managed to dodge most of it, though he still caught enough of it to be annoyed.

"Brat? What the hell is going on? You were supposed to meet us back at the entrance!"

_Sasori. _Orochimaru smirked, dodging another one of Deidara's punches. _Perfect. Just in time, too. _

The redhead walked into the room and stopped when he saw his partner and the snake-like man. Just to irritate his former partner, he kicked Deidara in the chest, most likely breaking a few more ribs. However, the smirk never left the blond's face, which infuriated Orochimaru. His last shred of patience was shot when Deidara grabbed his ankle and used his palm-mouth to bite it. Hissing, he kicked his hand aside and stomped on it, pleased with the 'crunch' he heard.

"What did you do, Orochimaru?" Sasori asked. His voice seemed neutral enough, but Orochimaru could sense the undiluted anger that was meant for him.

_No, that's not what I want_. Orochimaru narrowed his eyes. _I need his reaction to be more…violent. What to do, what to do? _An idea slowly formed in his head, and smirked evilly._ This will absolutely _destroy _him! _He lunged at Deidara and grabbed his hair, forcing his face close to his. "You didn't scream once while we fought, and I can sense the power in your chakra," he whispered. "I want to keep an eye on you…" Smirking, he leaned forward and sunk his teeth into Deidara's neck. The blond tried to thrash away, but the sannin's grip on his hair prevented him from doing so.

Orochimaru locked eyes with Sasori while making the punctures deeper. His former partner face went from shocked to…enraged. _Bingo_.

"You're fucking dead!" yelled the redhead. His eyes were ablaze with hatred, but before he could attack, he stopped, his eyes narrowing.

Puzzled, Orochimaru loosened his hold on Deidara. He felt something on the back of his neck, and realized what it was too late. With a smirk, the blond kicked him forward and stumbled to his feet.

"Katsu!"

As the explosive detonated, Orochimaru smirked one more time before disappearing with a puff of smoke.

* * *

Sasori was a man who took pride in the fact that he could remain composed and emotionless for almost anything. He nearly forgot what true anger was, so when it bubbled through his heart, he was surprised. He had no idea whether it came from the fact that he was face-to-face with Orochimaru, the man who betrayed the Akatsuki and his trust, or that said man was terrorizing Deidara, the closest thing he had to an ally (though he would never admit it aloud). At the moment, he didn't want to distract himself by wondering; all he wanted to do was kill.

Before he could let all his strategies fly out the window in favor of giving into the anger and blindly attacking, he saw Deidara, whose unbroken hand was shaking—probably from the strain of his injuries—press a small clay spider onto the back of Orochimaru's neck.

_Of course. So that's why you didn't try harder to escape. You were always so reckless, Deidara. _Though he was still enraged, his thoughts became more rational. _I hope you know what you're doing. If you made that bomb too powerful, you'll blow us all up._

However, he was pleasantly surprised when the blast was smaller than he thought it would be. The surprise turned to shock (though he made sure his face stayed neutral) when instead of exploding, Orochimaru merely disappeared, leaving a cloud of smoke behind.

_What? A bunshin? _Sasori realized what had happened: Orochimaru had created a bunshin to terrorize his partner while he escaped. _Damn him!_ He hated how he was feeling; he just wanted all of his emotions to be gone. _This is why I became a puppet; why am I getting those damn emotions back?_

Sasori was snapped back into reality when Deidara spoke.

"Let's go, un. My neck and ribs are killing me."

Despite the nonchalant tone in the bomber's voice, Sasori could sense the slight fear in it. If he had fought any other opponent, the redhead would have made a scathing comment to goad his partner into responding furiously (the way his emotions were so easily displayed amused him). But since Orochimaru was involved, he was not in the mood for a debate. Not to mention the sannin had literally sunken his teeth into Deidara.

_Given that a bunshin bit him, as well as the fact that he's still conscious, I doubt he was given a curse mark. But still… _He made a mental note to ask Kakuzu to look for any unnatural spikes in chakra when he healed the blond.

Sasori noticed Deidara's Akatsuki robe was discarded on the floor. He quickly snatched up the garment and threw it at the bomber, who caught it and draped it over his shoulders.

When they met Kakuzu, who had gone ahead to keep Aoi out of any further conflicts, at the entrance of the hideout, the puppet master explained their battle with 'Orochimaru' (but not without some interruptions from Deidara, who tried to embellish everything to make him look more powerful). As soon as all three exited the building, the Taki-nin turned to Sasori. "You're carrying the girl."

"Why? You're the strongest of us," Sasori countered.

"She lives with you. She's your problem."

Too irritated to argue, the redhead just sighed and grabbed the brunette. _None of this would have happened if you weren't here. _He narrowed his eyes. _Then again, you did tell us how we could prevent our deaths. _At the moment, he wasn't sure whether he should be grateful to her or not. The girl always made him feel on-edge, and he didn't like it, especially since he couldn't pinpoint the reason why.

Sighing, he shifted Aoi's position to make carrying her more comfortable and quickened his pace to catch up with Kakuzu.

* * *

It took three days for the group to get back to the Akatsuki base. During the first night, Kakuzu healed Deidara's ribs and hand. When he tried to heal the puncture wounds on his neck, however, they wouldn't close up. There was no sign of a curse mark, nor was there any poison in the wound, so the stitched-nin wasn't sure why they wouldn't heal. After awhile, he gave up, slapping a bandage on Deidara's neck and telling him to wash it frequently.

Aoi didn't wake up once during the journey, not even when her leg was healed, or when the device in her chest was grabbed. Kakuzu had suspected said device was the cause of her illness. He wasn't sure if he should remove it, so he decided to wait until they got back to the base to study it further. He really didn't care if the girl died or not; he felt no connection to her, but Pein explicitly ordered her to be brought back alive if Orochimaru didn't kill her. He did not want to face the pierced man's wrath, so for this reason alone did Kakuzu swear to try to heal the girl to the best of his abilities.

Once they returned to the base, Kakuzu brought Aoi straight to his infirmary. He laid her down on one of the operating tables. An inquisitive Deidara and a seemingly indifferent Sasori stared at him.

"Do you know what's wrong with her, un?" asked Deidara.

"I'm going to try to discover that right now," answered the Taki-nin. He was starting to get irritated from Deidara's constant hovering. _He's starting to be worse than Hidan_._ Wait, no, scratch that, no one's more annoying than that silver-haired bastard! _

He cracked his knuckles and began to work. He placed his glowing hands over the girl's chest, trying to sense what was wrong. His unusually-colored eyes narrowed when he figured out the problem. "That device," he finally said, "is pumping chakra throughout her body. However, it seems that the chakra is incompatible with her, and is slowly killing her from the inside out."

"What can you do, Kakuzu-san?" asked Sasori. "Can you remove the device?"

"No," answered the stitched man. "I can sense that the device attached tendrils of chakra—very similar to your chakra strings—around her heart and lungs. If I removed the device, those tendrils would constrict around the organs, destroying them and therefore killing her. However, I can stop the flow of chakra from the device, stopping the creation of more tendrils. From there, I don't know what to do."

Sasori nodded. "Do what you must." Deidara nodded as well.

"Very well, then. I will start the procedure," answered the miser. He pressed his hand against the device, sucking out all the chakra. When it was empty, he said, "I've removed all of the chakra; she is stabilized for now. She will not die, but she will forever have a weak heart." _I wouldn't even steal it if I could_.

He noticed that another reason for her discomfort was that the device was only cauterized externally, yet was free to move internally. He pressed his hand to the wound once more, feeling his medical ninjutsu seal the inside of the incision as well. "Now she will not be in any more unnecessary pain," he explained.

"When will she wake up? Before the mission, Pein-sama told me to get him and Itachi as soon as she was awake."

"My guess is that she will regain consciousness when her body is done reconfiguring itself to accept the device. I doubt it will take much longer; she is no longer in any danger of dying."

"What should we do until then, un?" asked Deidara, tapping his foot.

"Simple, Deidara-san," replied Kakuzu. "We wait." He was sure Sasori gave him a death glare, but he chose to ignore it. He knew Pein wouldn't be happy if he killed any more members.

* * *

**EDIT 2013:  
Ugh, this one took freaking forever to finish! I think this was the most work I've done reworking a chapter for this story! (However, I really wanted to change a lot of parts about this one, so I'm happy that I spent so much time on it.) I hope I made Deidara less moe and wimpy, but not too overpowered.  
Also, I omitted the part where Aoi gets her arm amputated, since in this version, her leg is broken, and Kakuzu could fix it.**

I hope this wasn't too boring; this was supposed to be a chapter that explained what the chakra device is, and how Aoi is healed. (Physically, at least). The next chapter will be better.

No, Deidara doesn't have a curse mark. However, the bite will have more significance later.

The scene with Deidara and Orochimaru creeped me out so much! Ick! I needed to have Sasori get extremely angry somehow, though, and what better way than for the snake-man to terrorize his partner. Even if Sasori won't admit it, I believe that he does care about Deidara. I hope Sasori wasn't too OOC. Kakuzu too; it was my first time writing him.

Anyways, I hope you enjoyed this chapter!


	11. Chapter Ten

**EDIT 2013:  
This chapter was COMPLETELY rewritten, which is why it took so long to be posted. It is drastically different than the first one. Instead of romance, have an interrogation. Oh, and Itachi. XD From here on, the story will be completely different than its predecessor. That being said, now the chapters will take longer to post because I am completely rewriting them.**

Welcome to Chapter Ten! Thank you for reading the story up to this point! Before I thank the reviewers, I'd just like to say that I know the previous chapter was very heavy on the explanation of the chakra device and Aoi getting healed. When I write original stories, I usually write sci-fi (well, not with aliens, but with a lot of scientific experimentation, XD), and I like to make everything seem believable. I know it might have been boring, but I wanted to make the story as realistic as possible (or, however realistic it could be in the Naruto world).

Now that that's out of the way, I'd like to thank all who reviewed. You're awesome!

I don't own Naruto. (Aww!)

* * *

-Chapter Ten: Interrogation-

As soon as Aoi opened her eyes, she felt a throbbing pain in her chest. It wasn't as bad as it was before, but it was enough to make her wince.

"Ah. You're finally up." Sasori narrowed his eyes and tilted his head slightly. Turning to Deidara, he barked, "Brat! Get Pein-sama and Itachi-san."

"Uchiha too? Why him, un?"

"Who else specializes in genjutsu and has Sharingan?"

"Fine. Point taken." Cracking his neck, Deidara exited.

Despite the pain, Aoi forced herself to sit up. "What's going on?"

"Because you were taken by Orochimaru, and could have given away valuable information about this organization, especially since you know so much about us, Pein-sama and Itachi-san are going to interrogate you to make sure you didn't." The redhead's voice was cold.

"But I didn't!"

"We need to know for sure."

Aoi looked down, not liking this at all. Suddenly realizing that all that was covering her top half was a bra, she blushed and covered her chest.

"Here." Not meeting her eyes, Sasori removed his cloak and threw it at her. "Your current state of dress is indecent."

The brunette nodded, blushing further, and quickly put on the garment. Before she could say 'thanks', Itachi and Pein entered the room, along with Deidara. Looking around, she noticed that Kakuzu was sitting in a chair, counting his money.

"Pein-sama. Itachi-san." Sasori nodded at each of them.

"Before we start the interrogation, I have something to ask," stated Itachi. "Kakuzu-san, what is your assessment of her injuries?"

Not looking up from his precious money, the Taki-nin responded with, "There's a device in her chest that was supposed to pump chakra throughout her entire body. Her body rejected it, and the chakra was killing her from the inside out. The device attached tendrils of chakra around her heart and lungs. If I removed it, the tendrils would constrict around the organs, destroying them and killing her. However, I stopped the flow of chakra, therefore stopping the creation of more tendrils. She is stabilized for now, but her heart has become weak."

The Uchiha nodded. "So she was used as a test subject, I presume."

Aoi knew she should have been annoyed by the fact that everyone was talking about her like she wasn't there, but she was too nervous about the interrogation to care. When Pein turned to her, she forced herself to look into his eyes, though she was completely intimidated.

"Before we begin, I want to state how serious this is. If you revealed any hint of information to Orochimaru, you will be put to death. I want you to know that this is nothing personal; Akatsuki just doesn't tolerate traitors."

"Right." Aoi gulped. She gripped the fabric of Sasori's cloak until her knuckles turned white.

Itachi stepped forward, his Sharingan almost glowing. Aoi instinctively closed her eyes, but opened them again when the Uchiha grabbed her chin and tilted her head upwards. Once again, she found herself being sucked into the raven-haired man's gaze. Feeling lightheaded, she gripped the edge of the table for support. When she was tired of the pounding in her head, she let the blackness of unconsciousness overtake her.

* * *

Itachi really didn't want to poke through Aoi's mind again, but he would rather do it than have Pein or one of the others interrogate her physically. He already knew a lot more about the girl than any of the others did, as well as knowing some…interesting…facts about the world he himself lived in. He wanted to get the chance to talk with her alone at some point, and hoped that she did not leak any information.

_Show me your entire stay with Orochimaru, _he silently spoke. He was able to slip into the memory with less resistance than the time before, so he was a bit concerned that her mind was becoming more vulnerable to genjutsu. However, he needed to focus on the interrogation, so he pushed the thought out of his mind.

As he watched the procedure, he was surprised at how much pain Aoi was able to endure before she passed out. He thought Orochimaru would go on with his cruel experiment as-is, and was a bit sickened by the fact that he jolted her awake before continuing.

The memory skipped forward, and Itachi found himself in another lab.

_Orochimaru knelt down to Aoi's level and stroked her face. She flinched, trying to get out of his grasp, obviously aggravating her injuries in the process. "Madara was right," he murmured, "you are weak, but you lived through the procedure. You must have some strength, after all." He leaned in closer, tilting his head. "Maybe I just didn't add enough chakra." Before she could resist, the tall man's hand slammed onto the device._

_ The brunette cried out and fell back, writhing from the pain, and Orochimaru stomped on one of her legs. He looked ready to inflict more damage, but stopped when he heard an explosion echo throughout the base. _

_ "We'll continue this later," he hissed. "I have some questions about my old friends in Akatsuki…" _

Itachi suddenly found himself back in the infirmary. Blinking a few times, he laid Aoi back down on the table. "No information was leaked to Orochimaru, Pein-sama."

"So she was able to resist his interrogation?" Pein's eyes narrowed.

"Yes and no," stated the Uchiha. "She was able to take an unusually high amount of pain, especially for someone who is a civilian, before passing out. However, Orochimaru's priority was using her as a test subject, not interrogation. From what I saw, though, it seemed as though he planned to interrogate her later."

"So what happened during the procedure, un?" Deidara narrowed his visible eye.

"It doesn't matter. All we needed to know was that she did not betray Akatsuki." Sasori's voice was cold. "I am disappointed; I was hoping that I would be able to add her to my collection…"

Something about the way Sasori spoke intrigued Itachi. He was an expert at reading people's emotions, and was puzzled by the fact that the redhead's seemed jumbled. The puppeteer, like the Uchiha himself, was always composed, even when threatening or killing people. However, there was something underneath his sharp tone that Itachi couldn't quite place.

He was snapped back to reality when Kakuzu spoke. "Can someone take the brat out of here? She's not going to die any time soon—unless one of us kills her—so she doesn't need to be here."

"Very well. I will take her back to my room." Before Itachi could pick her up, Deidara stepped forward.

"Your room? I thought she was living with Danna and I, un."

"I think it would be best if Aoi-san was away from you two for a few days. She needs time to recover, and your constant debating will only make it worse," the Uchiha smoothly responded. Turning to Pein, he inquired, "Is this all right, Leader-sama?"

The pierced man nodded, leaving the room. Deidara scowled, and Itachi assumed it was because once again, he had 'bested' the bomber. He mumbled something under his breath before leaving as well. Itachi gently picked up Aoi and was about to exit when he was stopped by Sasori.

"What's your goal?" the redhead whispered. "I know you have something up your sleeve."

"Don't you think Aoi-san could use some time to get to know other members besides you and Deidara-san?"

Before the puppet master could respond, Itachi left the infirmary.

* * *

Sasori narrowed his eyes before leaving the room. He contemplated following Itachi, but decided not to; he wanted to work on his puppets some more. However, he was still trying to piece together why the Uchiha wanted Aoi away from him and Deidara; he was sure that there was an ulterior motive.

When he got back to his room, he was pretty sure Deidara was sulking, a fact which slightly amused him. "Aren't you happy, brat? We get our room back."

"Stupid Uchiha, un," was all he got in response.

Narrowing his eyes at the childish (and one-sided) rivalry between his partner and Itachi, Sasori ignored Deidara and proceeded to add some new mechanisms to one of his puppets. Despite working on his art, he found his thoughts straying back to Aoi, and the reaction she gave when asked about her opinion of being Akatsuki's tool. _Her answer was so…cold. _Shaking his head, he forced himself to focus on the puppet in front of him. _Who cares about some girl who will die. You don't understand her, and no matter what she says otherwise, she sure as hell doesn't understand you. She hasn't even been here a month and she already jeopardized this organization. I don't understand why Pein just won't kill her, or order one of us to. We know our futures; she's done her job. In her words, she's a tool who's gone dull._

"Uh, Sasori-danna?"

Deidara's voice snapped him out of his thoughts. "What, brat?"

"Why did you put the leg on backwards, un?"

Sasori looked down and saw that the blond was indeed correct. _Shit. _Standing up, he strode over to the door and pulled it open with more force than necessary. _I have to end this, now._

"Where are you going?"

"I left my cloak with Aoi-san. I need to get it back; my mission report for Pein is in one of the pockets."

Before Deidara would answer, he left. _Hopefully Itachi is busy; I don't need him involved. _

When Sasori reached Itachi's and Kisame's shared room, he tentatively opened the door. No one responded, so he assumed both were out. _Perfect. _Narrowing his eyes, he silently shut the door behind him. Because of the lamp that was fortunately on, he could see Aoi sleeping on one of the beds. _I have to do this quickly; I probably don't have much time. _Reaching into a pocket on his pants, he pulled out a sheathed knife. _Good thing the poison on this one induces cardiac arrest. Her death can be blamed on the device. _Removing the knife from its sheath, he proceeded to kneel down next to the bed. He then unsnapped his cloak and removed Aoi's arms from it. Leaning closer, he scanned her body for a good spot to cut. He was about to make his move when the girl flipped onto her side and stretched her arms out, wrapping them around his chest.

Sasori nearly dropped the knife, recoiling as though he had been slapped. Emotions hit him harder than they ever had since he turned himself into a puppet, and he didn't like it. Not used to the physical contact, he quickly removed the brunette's arms from around him and stood up. He looked at the knife a few moments before covering it and throwing it back into his pocket. _I…I can't kill her. Why can't I kill her? _Confused, he shook his head, unsure of why he was acting this way. Narrowing his eyes, he left the room, his hand over his heart.

* * *

_My suspicions were correct. _Itachi unmasked his chakra and walked out from the bathroom, puzzled by the new developments. Ever since the change in Sasori's tone, the Uchiha had a feeling he would try to kill Aoi, though he wasn't sure why. He took the girl back to his room to test the theory, and was unsurprised to see that it was indeed correct. If the puppet master actually decided to go through with it, Itachi planned to leave the bathroom and stop him, since the redhead would be going against Pein's orders. However, he predicted that Sasori wouldn't do it for an unknown reason. He did not predict that the girl would unconsciously latch onto him.

Itachi knew more about Aoi than any of the other members; he knew her likes, dislikes, favorite foods, etc. He also knew that Akatsuki, as well as their entire world, was fictional in Aoi's. By scanning her thoughts the first time, he gleaned that she knew all about them not from dreams, but because they were characters in a picture-novel, or manga, as she called it. He knew that he and the rest of the organization were her favorite characters because they were outcasts, just like her. Just by focusing on those thoughts, as well as what he knew of her personality and life, he could easily guess who her favorite member was. And he was concerned. Not just for her, but for the member she favored and kept her eye on. He knew that if they got too close, it would not end well for either. _She doesn't belong with us, no matter how much she understands us. She is too innocent._

Sighing, Itachi snapped the cloak back up and pulled a blanket over the brunette. Grabbing a thick novel from his well-stocked bookshelf, he sat down in his chair and proceeded to read. He wanted to wait until Kisame came back before he went to sleep.

* * *

**EDIT 2013:  
Finally! I finished this! It might be a bit shorter than my usual chapters, but I didn't know where else to end it, XD.**

**I really, really hope that Itachi and Sasori weren't OOC (especially Itachi. I didn't want to make him seem too nice, but I also wanted him to seem a bit protective. I feel like I butchered his scenes…). **

**Haha, for some reason, I can totally see Sasori looking horrified if he ever got hugged, XD. **

**Also, Itachi's acceptance of the fact that his world is fictional will be explained in the next chapter. **

**I hope this was enjoyable…**


	12. Chapter Eleven

**EDIT 2013: This chapter is completely rewritten as well, since this is where this version goes off in a different direction than the old one. (Haha, I'm going back to my original outline for this, XD.)**

Welcome to Chapter Eleven! Thanks for reading the story up to this point.

Ugh, college has been killing me lately (just last week I had a Japanese test and quiz, two papers, ten pages of Japanese listening homework, and endless readings for three out of my four classes), so I haven't had time to write until now. But now that the workload has lessened, I decided to work on this.

This chapter will be a turning point for Aoi. She will go on her first mission. (But that's all I'm spoiling…XD) In addition to that, she and Itachi will have a nice discussion, XD. Because this is an important chapter, it will be significantly longer than the others. Think of it as a 'special' of some sort.

Thanks to all who reviewed; you're all awesome~

Special thanks goes to **Robine**. I love your reviews; they always make me smile, and give me the motivation to work on the next chapter.

*I don't own Naruto. I do, however, own a Deidara plushie…*

* * *

-Chapter Eleven: Failure-

Itachi narrowed his eyes when he heard soft whimpers coming from his bed. Placing his book on the chair, he got up and walked over to the source of the noise. When he pulled back the blankets, he found Aoi curled up, her face in a grimace. He internally sighed; he knew that she was not awake, and that she was having a nightmare. _It makes sense, considering the nature of the procedure. _Without really thinking, he reached down and covered her hand with his. After a few more moments of trembling, the brunette relaxed, softly sighing into the pillow. As soon as Itachi saw that she was sleeping peacefully, he let go and walked back to his chair.

"Gettin' soft, Itachi?" Kisame joked, his grin making him look even more shark-like.

Itachi narrowed his eyes, not really in the mood for his partner's teasing. He raised an eyebrow before sitting down and letting himself get immersed in the book once more. He was about halfway through it when he found his eyes closing. Not wanting to put any more strain on them, he set the book down and grabbed an extra blanket and a pillow for himself. He wasn't too happy about sleeping on the floor, but he knew he wouldn't be able to fit on the bed with Aoi on it. Plus, there were the…unfortunate…connotations to sharing a bed, and he didn't want Kisame to give him any more grief. Sighing, he cocooned himself in the blanket and closed his sore eyes. Soon after, he sensed that Kisame turned off the light. He would usually thank the shark-like man, but he was too tired to bother. For once, sleep came to him easily.

Itachi woke to sharp pains in his chest. Throwing off his blanket, he ran to the bathroom before coughing, not wanting to wake Kisame or Aoi. When he looked at his hand, he saw the telltale red of blood. He pursed his lips, quickly washing it off before grabbing his medication. Without bothering to get a cup, he swallowed the pills dry. He was about to start coughing again, but he suppressed it. When he was sure he got his breathing under control, he straightened his shoulders and turned around. He was surprised when he saw Aoi at the door, but made sure his face remained stoic.

"Are you okay, Itachi-san?" she asked.

"I am fine," he replied curtly, but still politely.

Leaning in closer, she whispered, "I know that you're sick. You don't have to hide it around me." Stepping back, she continued, "Kisame-san went to breakfast."

Itachi narrowed his eyes, an idea suddenly forming in his mind. "After I change, I have a few questions for you."

The short brunette tilted her head, a gesture that eerily reminded him of a certain puppet master. "Certainly." Blushing, she looked away, gripping the front of the redhead's cloak. "Would you mind if I borrowed a shirt? This cloak belongs to Sasori-san; I feel weird wearing it."

Nodding, the raven-haired man exited the bathroom and grabbed the smallest shirt he owned from his dresser. He waited until Aoi locked the bathroom door before changing his own clothes. When she walked out of the bathroom, Itachi invited her to sit down in the chair next to his.

"I suppose you're wondering about some things about your world," she stated quietly. "I know that you know a lot more about me than Pein-sama does." Looking down, she wrung her hands.

"Hn." Itachi nodded. "I was wondering about this…manga…we are a part of. It is named after the Uzumaki boy, yes?"

Aoi nodded. "He is the protagonist. The story basically follows his life, though it also focuses a lot on Sas…" She paused, her eyes widening.

"It focuses on Sasuke's life, too?" Itachi asked gently.

The brunette nodded stiffly. "I am sorry if I offended you by bringing him up. Besides those two, your organization was shown a lot too, as you already know. I know everyone's backstory, and everyone's true identities and goals."

"That was my second question. Tobi's identity is not Madara?"

"Yes. He is indeed Uchiha Obito."

"I had a feeling he was not Madara; something just didn't add up. But Obito?"

Aoi nodded once more. "I know I shouldn't be changing the story around, since I don't know what will happen, but he starts the Fourth Shinobi World War. So many people will die. I know there won't be a way to convince him otherwise, and I won't even try, but I just wanted to let you know his plans. I know this war probably can't be prevented, but I was hoping that…" She let her sentence trail off. "Never mind."

"You were hoping that I would be able to oppose him, or hope that Akatsuki will remain alive so that it will be possible to go against him should he reveal himself prematurely?" Itachi could easily pick out the girl's thought pattern. "Nothing is ever that simple, Aoi-san, something I am sure you know. I know all about this war, since I saw it play out in your mind, up to when the Hyuuga boy dies…" He could have sworn he saw Aoi wince. He wanted to move onto another topic; he would strategize what to do about this entire situation when he had some time to think. Unconsciously leaning in a bit closer, he quietly said, "I saw what happened to Sasuke, and I know now that I shouldn't have handled everything alone. He has friends who would risk their lives to bring him back just as much as I want him to go back." He leaned back, relaxing his posture slightly. "If it is possible, I might try to reach out to Sasuke while I am still alive. But if that doesn't work? I will let fate take its course. As you know, my life is almost over, anyway."

Aoi's stare was filled with a deep sadness, something that surprised him. Though she had been reading about his—and the other members'—lives for years, she still never really knew him. "In my world, there is a vaccine that could have prevented your sickness if you got it as a child. I researched your symptoms, and I think you have a form of tuberculosis. Overworking yourself isn't helping, either."

Still not completely understanding why the brunette cared so much, he nodded politely, changing topics once more. "What do you think this world is, compared to yours? Do you still find it fictional?"

"I actually have my own theory on that." Aoi smiled, and Itachi guessed she was proud of whatever she thought of. "This world could be parallel to mine, though it's a story there. For all we know, my world could be a story in another parallel world, or even in this one. I'm guessing that the universe is made up of a bunch of different planes, each one on a different time frame and with different geography, social structure, etc. The jutsu Pein-sama used must have been powerful enough to transcend worlds to bring me here. Does that sound confusing?"

Itachi shook his head. He understood everything she said, though some parts seemed far-fetched. However, it made more sense than anything Pein came up with, so he would accept this theory, for now. He was about to make an addition to it when the door was thrown open, the noise making Aoi jump slightly.

"Pein-sama wants to talk to Aoi-san, un." Without meeting the Uchiha's eyes, Deidara strode over to the girl, grabbing her wrist.

"Ah! I guess we'll continue this discussion some other time, Itachi-san?"

"Very well." Remembering something, he stood up, grabbing Sasori's cloak from where it was discarded. "Give this back to Sasori-san; I'm sure he misses it."

Nodding, Aoi used her free hand to take the garment. "I will see you later, Itachi-san."

Before he could even respond, Deidara literally pulled her out of the room. Before he slammed the door shut, he threw one last glare at Itachi, his cerulean eyes icy.

_He always has to get the last laugh. I hope he knows that I have no ill-will towards him… _Itachi was growing tired of the blond's one-sided rivalry. Bringing him into Akatsuki wasn't out of spite; it was just business. It wasn't his fault that Deidara was young and foolish back then. _And still is… _Sighing, Itachi grabbed his unfinished book from its place on the shelf. Before he could even sit down, pain burst in his chest, causing him to drop the hardcover. Sinking to his knees, he braced himself for another coughing attack. This one lasted longer than the previous, but luckily, there was no blood. Once the pain subsided, he wiped his mouth and regulated his breathing. Narrowing his eyes, he stood up and walked out of the room, wanting to eat some breakfast before it was all gone.

* * *

As soon as Deidara and Aoi were out of Itachi's line of sight, the blond's face relaxed. "Stupid Uchiha," he muttered.

"He's not that bad, Deidara-san," Aoi said, almost rolling her eyes. She didn't want to anger the bomber, though, so she refrained from doing so.

"Not that bad? He humiliated me, and he took away my freedom! He and his stupid eyes ruined me, un."

Aoi nodded, hearing the raw bitterness behind his words. "I doubt he wanted to antagonize you purposefully; Pein-sama ordered him, Kisame-san, and Sasori-san to retrieve you. However, I understand where you're coming from." She cracked her knuckles, internally chuckling at the loud sound they made. A thought appeared in her mind, and for once, she blurted it out. "Are you unhappy here, Deidara-san?"

The Iwa-nin's visible eye widened slightly before returning to its original state. "Can you really be happy in an organization like this one, un?" he asked, almost wryly. "I'm only here because Pein-sama thought I was indispensable for his plan. Sasori-danna isn't the worst person to be partnered with—I would _not _want to be in Kakuzu-san's position, and I sure as hell wouldn't want to be in Kisame-san's—and I get to show the world my art," he smirked, most likely thinking of a successful mission, "but am I truly happy here? No. The only person who even remotely understands the artistic nature of my abilities is Danna. They're just explosions to everyone else; no one _gets_ what they really mean, un. You speak of being a tool? Well, we're all tools here. Caged birds… Heh, Sasori thinks he's the puppet master? Even he has strings that are being pulled. Pein-sama too. I feel like there is something else going on here, but I can't pinpoint what…"

Aoi noticed a faraway look in his eye, something that slightly unnerved her. She knew Deidara was smart, but she didn't think she'd pick up on the fact that there was an ulterior motive to Akatsuki this soon. _It didn't seem that way in the manga. Am I changing the course of the story? _

Before she could theorize more, Deidara grabbed her shoulder, signaling her to stop walking. When she looked forward, she discovered that they reached Pein's office. The blond knocked a few times before stepping back. A few moments passed before the door creaked open, revealing Pein. The shadows made his piercings more pronounced, making him look more intimidating than usual. He gestured for the two to enter, and they complied. Once the door was shut, Pein walked back to his desk, flipping open a folder.

"I have decided that it is time for Aoi-san to start pulling her weight," he stated. "If she is to be a member of this organization, she has to work for it. Ordinarily, I would send you out with one other member, but in this case, you will be going with two, since you have no skills in taijutsu, ninjutsu, or even genjutsu."

Aoi had a bad feeling about this.

Pein looked directly at her before continuing. "There is only one member who doesn't have a partner at the moment."

Deidara winced, and Aoi stiffened. _No…He can't mean…_

"For as long as you remain in Akatsuki, your partner will be Tobi."

Aoi could have sworn she saw Deidara facepalm out of the corner of her eye. _Pein thinks that Tobi is Madara, and that I know it. Obito knows that I know his true identity. This is bad. _

She snapped herself out of her thoughts in time to hear Pein's next statement. "Like I said before, you would usually be sent out only with your partner, but since this is your first mission, not to mention the fact that you are inexperienced with any sort of combat, Deidara-san will accompany you two."

Aoi sighed in relief; she knew that as long as Deidara was around, Obito would keep up his Tobi persona.

"Where is the little shit anyway, un?"

"Tobi has already been briefed on the mission; he is getting ready." Pein pointed to a picture in the folder. "This is Takayama Junko. She's the nineteen-year-old heiress of the Takayama fortune. She lives in the village of Hokori, a pretty large town just inside the border of the Land of Fire. Kakuzu-san that her money would be beneficial to us, especially since our finances have been dropping in the past months, so your mission is to get close to her, then assassinate her."

The squirming feeling in Aoi's stomach returned. She knew that she was technically an enemy of the Five Great Shinobi Countries just by being affiliated with Akatsuki, but that didn't mean she was willing to kill an innocent girl. _There has to be some way out of this… _

She looked up when Pein continued. "Since you two are the youngest members, it will be easy to convince her that you are travelers who are interested in the village. She is a very vain girl who loves attention, so as long as you show interest in her, she'll befriend you. However, if you express that you are interested in her money, she will be suspicious. She might be narcissistic, but she isn't completely stupid. Aoi-san," he looked at her directly, "it will be easier for you to befriend her first, since you are also female, so that will be your primary goal."

"Is there a reason why Tobi is coming along?" Deidara inquired. "He doesn't seem to be a good match for this mission since he wears that stupid mask."

Aoi widened her eyes; she didn't think anyone would question Pein. Instead of retorting back sharply, however, the orange-haired man merely raised an eyebrow. "You are correct; Tobi doesn't really meet the qualifications. However, I want you to report back to me how well he and Aoi-san work together, since they will be partners from now on."

Deidara nodded, seemingly satisfied with the answer. "Do you want us to get ready now, un?"

Pein nodded. "Take this." He handed the folder to Aoi. "You and Deidara-san can study it on the way to Hokori."

Aoi and Deidara nodded. "Right," she said.

The two prepared to leave, but Pein stopped the blond. "I expect a detailed report on this mission after it is complete."

"Yes, Leader-sama, un."

As soon as they were both out of the orange-haired man's range, Deidara spoke. "So, you're stuck with Tobi? I'd hate to be in your shoes; that pest will talk your ear off. He already calls me 'senpai'; I wonder what he'll call you, un."

"Yeah." Aoi was not happy with the current arrangement, though she tried to keep her voice neutral.

"Hey. I'll be there with you; it won't be too bad. I doubt he'll be breaking any bones this time, un. Not yours, at least. And once you get back, the others will probably respect you more."

The brunette was surprised at the Iwa-nin's perceptiveness. "Thanks."

She only got a grunt in return, but she knew that she was getting closer to gaining Deidara's trust. She was surprised; she didn't think she would be able to get along with him. He was her opposite in terms of personality, and even his views on art contrasted with hers. She was actually surprised he didn't try to blow her up, yet. However, she wasn't complaining; she was happy to have an ally. _Allies, _she corrected herself. _If I count Itachi as one. _She didn't know the raven-haired man's true opinion of her, but she didn't think he'd kill her any time soon. Snapping herself out of her thoughts, she picked up her pace in order to catch up to Deidara, who had walked ahead. _This mission is going to be…interesting…_

/

The journey to Hokori felt longer than it actually was. Aoi wasn't used to Obito's and Deidara's rapid pace, nor was she used to the constant walking. The plus side to it was that she slept soundly, but in the mornings, her muscles constantly ached. She didn't speak much, but when she did, it was to Deidara. Obito kept up his Tobi persona as she predicted, though most of his antics were directed at his 'senpai'. As soon as they made it into their motel room, she dropped onto one of the beds, exhausted. She felt some weight next to her, but was too tired to see what it was. Until Deidara spoke, that is.

"Tobi, you idiot! You can't sleep there, un!"

Aoi stiffened. She didn't want Obito near her, especially when she was asleep.

"But the room only has two beds, and I thought you said you didn't want to be near me," the masked man retorted innocently.

"I didn't, but that doesn't mean you sleep next to Aoi-san. That's rude, and sort of creepy." Aoi could sense that Deidara was nearing the end of his patience.

"Then where am I supposed to sleep?" Obito whined.

"The floor, un."

"But I'm more of an Akatsuki member than her! Why should I get the floor?"

"Fine!" the blond yelled. "You can have the other bed, and I'll share Aoi-san's bed."

"But I thought you said sharing a bed with a girl was creepy!"

"Tobi. If you don't shut up, I swear your limbs will be splattered all over this room, un."

"Eeep!" Though Aoi's eyes were closed, she knew that Obito jumped back, not wanting to anger the blond further. "G-goodnight, Deidara-senpai!"

"Sure," was all the bomber retorted with. Aoi heard the sound of rustling clothing, and sensed the lights were turned off. She felt more weight on the bed and the blanket shift, meaning that Deidara was now on the bed with her. She felt a little awkward that she was sharing a bed with a male, not to mention that he was a _terrorist bomber, _but she was relieved that it was Deidara and not Obito. Relaxing, she snuggled into the blankets more and welcomed sleep.

_Aoi was trapped, her body restrained to Orochimaru's operating table. As the snake Sannin loomed closer, she tried to escape, though her efforts were futile. She closed her eyes as the scalpel dug into her skin, trying to hold back a scream. She arched her back when the chakra device was implanted, sobbing. Somehow, she found her arms free, and she reached out, trying to grab anything that could help her. She felt something warm in front of her and latched onto it, wrapping her arms around whatever it was. She suddenly felt calm and relaxed her tense muscles, moving closer to the warmth. She felt the softness of fabric brush against her face, as well as a heartbeat. Sighing, she pressed her body closer to the source of her calmness, wrapping her arms around it more tightly._

She was jolted awake when a surprised voice yelled, "What the hell, un?" and pushed her away. She was only half-awake when she felt a stinging pain on her face. Snapping her eyes open, she brought a hand to her face, realizing that she'd been slapped. "Deidara-san?" she asked quietly.

"What was that, un? One minute, I wake up to you crying in your sleep, and the next, you're wrapping your arms around me!"

"I…I'm sorry. I was having a nightmare, and I just…needed something to grab onto." She realized how awkward the entire situation must have been for the blond, and she looked away, embarrassed.

"Ah…" The harsh tone in the bomber's voice softened, almost as if he understood the feeling. "I didn't think you were the type of girl to throw yourself at men, but I was just surprised."

"D'aww. Tobi thought it was cute!" Obito cooed. "Aren't you going to kiss her, Deidara-senpai?"

"Tobi? Shut the hell up!" Deidara yelled through gritted teeth.

"What time is it, anyway?" Aoi muttered, rubbing the tiredness out of her eyes.

"It's ten-thirty," the Iwa-nin answered. "Time to put our plan into action, un. The folder said that Takayama always goes to this prissy shop for tea at eleven-thirty, so we'll head there, first. Aoi-san, you approach her first. I will meet up with you once you lure her back to her house. Tobi will stay in the background, ready to collect the money. Since I am not very well-known here, I won't have to use a transformation technique. However, we won't wear our cloaks, just like when we arrived here; we don't want to risk any shinobi catching on to the fact we're here."

Once everyone was dressed, they walked to the tea shop. Aoi's stomach churned with nervousness; she wasn't a manipulative person by nature, and she really didn't want an innocent girl to die because of her affiliation with Akatsuki. The nervousness increased when she saw her target sitting by herself, sipping tea daintily.

"Now's your chance," Deidara whispered. "Go now, and we'll keep an eye on you, un."

"Right." Aoi felt like she was going to throw up, but she took deep breaths before walking forward. When she reached the girl, she plastered what she hoped to be a convincing smile on her face. "H-hello! I'm new here, and I was wondering if you could show me around." _What the hell? That's all you could come up with? You're terrible at social interactions!_

"Certainly!" Aoi was surprised by the girl's cheerful answer. "I know this town better than anyone! I am Takayama Junko, by the way. What's your name?"

"Kawaguchi Hotaru." She didn't want to use her real name, so she used the pseudonym Pein gave her.

"Well, Kawaguchi-san, I'll give you the grand tour."

"Thanks so much, Takayama-san."

As the tour went on, Aoi wished she was deaf; not only was Junko vain, but she was also annoyingly energetic and optimistic.

"And here's my humble abode, the Takayama mansion. I _am _the heiress to the fortune, after all!"

"Really? That's amazing!" _'Humble abode'? Yeah right; this place could house more than thirty people! _

"Definitely! The best part is that no one's even gotten one piece of the fortune; it's hidden away in a compartment under the basement!"

"Why are you telling me this?" Aoi asked, genuinely interested in Junko's openness.

The older girl shrugged. "You're harmless. I can't even sense a hint of chakra in you."

"She may be harmless, but I'm not, un." Before Aoi could even blink, Deidara was behind Junko, restraining her. Before she could scream, Obito darted out from wherever he was hiding, clamping a hand over her mouth. The two kicked the door open and dragged her inside.

"I thought I told you to stay in the background, Tobi."

"But Senpai, she was going to scream! And I know how much you hate your extra mouths touching other people's mouths!"

Deidara blushed, then narrowed his visible eye. "Shut up, you little shit, un!" Using his free hand, he tossed a kunai to Aoi, who clumsily caught it. "Finish her off. It's your mission, so you get the honors."

Blood pounded in the brunette's head, and the room spun around her. She looked at Junko, who was now silently sobbing. Grey eyes met blue, and Aoi stepped back. At this moment, she knew that she didn't belong with Akatsuki. She let her guard down, and let herself feel comfortable with them. But they were dangerous criminals, and they were now asking her to casually kill someone. Dropping the kunai, she did the only thing she could think of. She ran.

Not knowing where she was going, Aoi tore through the village, running as fast as she could. She didn't look where she was going, and before she knew it, she bumped into someone.

"Oh! I am so sorry!" a timid but familiar voice whispered.

Aoi looked up, meeting the milky lavender eyes of Hyuuga Hinata. "Hinata?" she whispered.

"Come on, Hinata-san! It's time to go!" Aoi looked towards the sound and saw Inuzuka Kiba waving by the village gate, Aburame Shino standing next to him.

"Right!" Hinata gave one last inquisitive look at Aoi before joining her teammates and leaving the village.

She really didn't want to pull Hinata and her team into this mess, but she knew it was probably her best chance at escaping. She was about to run after them, but a hand snaked around her neck, pulling her into the shadows. "Found you," Obito growled. The hand tightened and dragged her behind what looked to be an abandoned restaurant. His voice rising a few octaves, he waved to Deidara, who stood a few meters away. "I found her, Senpai!"

In seconds, the bomber was in front of them. Obito let go, allowing the younger man to throw her into the wall. "You. Little. Traitor," he snarled quietly, wrapping his hands around her throat.

"Deidara…sama…" Aoi was fading, but she hoped that the higher-ranking honorific would surprise him enough to pause for a few moments.

She was right. "What? Flattery won't save you, un." However, the grip on her neck loosened, though not by much. "Give me a reason why I shouldn't kill you right now."

"Please…" Aoi's eyes watered from the strain on her throat, and from fear. "In my world, people don't kill others casually. We don't have shinobi, and are brought up to help others, not hurt them. I…I didn't want to kill Takayama, and I panicked. I wasn't going to betray you; I just…couldn't do it."

"Tch. You're weak." The blond dropped her to the ground. He placed a foot on her chest, though not much pressure was added.

Aoi suddenly laughed, though tears fell from her eyes. "I knew it was too good to be true," she rasped. "I was too strange to fit in with my world, and too weak for this one. Maybe I'm better dead." She chuckled more, her throat burning with each word. "But I'm scared to die. Yes, everyone probably has a fear of death, but me? With each birthday that passes, I think I'm one year closer to dying, and it terrifies me. In my world, there is no way to stop the passage of time, but here? There are methods. Three of your fellow Akatsuki members are examples of this. It's probably stupid of me to reveal my fears, my weaknesses in case I am kept alive, but if I am going to die, I want it to be on my terms. If you kill me, I want you to give my body to Sasori-san. That way, it can live on forever, be of use to someone. After all, we share the same opinion on art. I'm not saying I'll be a masterpiece, but it would be better than rotting in some hole in the ground."

"You…" Deidara's eye glinted, though it lost the fire it once held.

Aoi found the foot being removed from her chest. The bomber knelt down to her level and helped her sit up. "You are like us, in some ways. I guess we artists are more alike than we'd like to think, un. I will let you live, since we got Takayama's fortune in the end, but don't thank me. This was a test, and you failed it. Leader-sama doesn't take failure too well."

"I will make this up to you," Aoi whispered. "I might not kill, but spying? I can do that. No one really notices me, anyway."

Deidara nodded, narrowing his eyes. The brunette suddenly felt a prick of pain in her arm, and looked down. She saw Obito back away from her, a needle in his hand.

"Tobi, you idiot! What did you do, un?"

Aoi's vision started to get fuzzy, and she felt herself falling back to the ground. Though it was hard for her to see, she could still hear pretty well.

"Leader-sama told me to sedate her if anything went wrong, and it did! She betrayed us, right? Also, now we can run faster back to the base, since we don't have to look out for her!"

"Stupid! She wasn't going to betray us, she just didn't want to kill Takayama and panicked, un!"

_Damn you, Obito. _Blackness was taking over Aoi's vision, and no matter how hard she tried to fight it, she couldn't win.

/

When Aoi regained consciousness, she found that she couldn't see. She assumed she was wearing a blindfold since she felt fabric wrap around her head, putting pressure on her eyes. She tried to move her arms, but discovered that her wrists were bound together in front of her. She felt the coldness of the floor against her chest and realized that she was naked from the waist up. Panicking, she sat up, bringing her knees to her chest in an attempt to cover herself.

She flinched when she heard the door open, and a cabinet being rifled through. "Hello?"

There was no answer. She tried again, trying to keep calm. "Deidara-san? Itachi-san?" Still, there was nothing. Trying to calm down, she breathed deeply, forcing herself to relax. It proved to be the wrong move to make when something slashed across her back. Gasping, she fell to the floor, her balance ruined. She assumed the weapon being used on her was a whip after the third lash. She lost count after fifteen. By then, all she could comprehend was pain, and was too weakened by it to even scream anymore. All she could do was cry. And cry she did.

She had no idea when the blows stopped, but she sensed her assailant leave when the door slammed shut. Though her back was burning, she let unconsciousness overtake her. When she woke, she found that she couldn't move. Even when she tried to shift positions, the pain in her back was too great. She didn't know how much time had passed, but she knew she was drifting in and out of consciousness. She didn't know if it was day or night, but she sensed it was the latter, since her body was naturally starting to get tired. Not trying to fight it anymore, she slept.

The next time she woke, she sensed that only a few hours had passed. She flinched when she heard the door open again, thinking it was her attacker. Since her hearing was heightened due to not having sight, she heard their footsteps walk closer until they stopped right next to her. She heard clothing shift and sensed that the person kneeled down. She whimpered when she felt hands on her back, but relaxed when the familiar feeling of healing chakra ran through her wounds. _Kakuzu? _But she knew it wasn't the miser; his hands were larger and rougher than the ones on her back. These hands were smooth, and very cold. At the moment, she couldn't think of anyone else in the organization who knew medical ninjutsu, so she gave up trying to guess.

When the hands left her back, her wounds still ached, though not as severely as before. She heard the person rifle through their bag, and was slightly intrigued. She sighed in relief when some sort of salve was poured onto her back, soothing the burning flesh. She felt the hands gently sit her up, as well as the soft cloth of bandages wrap around her chest and back. When they were done, they pushed her back to the floor, but not harshly.

"Thank you," she whispered, her voice still weak.

The door closing was her response.

As the days went by, she found herself being hungry, but not as much as she was thirsty. She had no idea how long she was in the room, but from how dehydrated she was, she guessed that it had to have been around five days. Shuddering, she curled up, trying to alleviate the burning in her throat and the hunger in her stomach.

When the door slammed open again, she didn't even flinch; she was too weak at this point.

"What the hell happened, un?" a familiar voice yelled. "Leader said Tobi just locked you down here so you'd be bored for five days."

"Deidara-san…" Aoi whispered.

"I swear, that pest is messed up…"

After a few moments, Aoi found her wrists free. She held them close to her chest, rubbing the chafed skin. Her stomach let out a low gurgle, and she blushed.

"Has he even been feeding you, un? You look pretty pale, more so than usual."

She forced herself to sit up and shook her head, too exhausted to talk.

"And your back! The bandages are bloody. I thought Leader said Tobi couldn't use ninjutsu as a punishment, un."

"Not ninjutsu," she rasped. "Whip."

"Oh…"

"Why are you here, Deidara-san," she whispered. "I thought you hated me."

"I was pretty angry, but for some reason, I can't hate you. Self-preservation just kicked in, and I can't say I haven't done the same, at least once. Plus…" he paused, his voice getting softer. "…You remind me of someone, un."

She felt his hand undo the blindfold, happy the pressure on her eyes was gone. Rubbing her eyes, she slowly opened them, happy to finally be able to see again. Instead, she saw nothing.

"Dei…Deidara-san?" she asked, her breathing starting to speed up. "Is the light on?"

"I turned it on when I walked in, un. Why?"

"I can't see. There's something wrong with my eyes."

* * *

And I end it with a cliffhanger, XDD. Whoops…

Yeah, this is the longest chapter for this story, so far. It is fifteen pages on Microsoft Word. Hopefully, this was worth the wait.

There was a lot packed into this chapter, so I hope it flowed all right.

Itachi's and Aoi's conversation was so hard to write. (I wanted to make Itachi seem intelligent, but I think I made him boring instead, XDD.)  
I hope his questions and answers were...Itachi-ish, X'D. I tried to make Aoi's theories coherent and somewhat realistic (at least for the Naruto world), so I hope they weren't too confusing...

I hope the scene with Aoi's nightmare wasn't too cheesy. It wasn't supposed to be romantic at all, so I hope it doesn't seem romantic…

As for the scene with her mission, I wanted to show that she was not comfortable with killing someone, or even watching someone die in front of her. (To the point where she'd run away, even if she knows it is futile to do so.)

There is a reason for Hinata being the one to run into Aoi; it will show up in a later subplot. It might seem random now, but it will make sense, later.

Her fear of death will show up later, and will be very important to a later subplot. The reason why she acts so strangely when Deidara confronts her after running away is because it is implied that she has Thanatophobia (a fear of death that is stronger than what ordinary people do). This will also come up later in the story, but I wanted to mention it now, in case that scene sounded weird.

…Haha, I wonder if anyone can guess who Aoi's attacker was (it's pretty obvious). For a more difficult question, I wonder if anyone can guess who healed her. (This won't be revealed until later, but I want to know if my subtle hints were obvious enough, XD.)

Hmm...Who do you think Aoi reminded Deidara of? XD

Ugh, I hope this chapter didn't suck, and that the characters (specifically Itachi and Deidara, and mostly Deidara) weren't out-of-character…


	13. Chapter Twelve

Hi~ Since I've been having horrid writer's block for my original stories, I thought I'd work on this one more~

I am finally finished with my midterms, and I'm on spring break! Now I can spend the entire week relaxing~ (And working on this fanfic~) …Though I still have homework to do. Damn…

This chapter is dedicated to a friend of mine! She surprised me with an ex-Iwagakure forehead protector and ring for my Deidara cosplay. My day has just been made! C: (Now all I need is my wig [which I ordered almost two weeks ago; I hope it gets shipped soon…] and the shirt [which my wonderful mother is in the process of sewing].)

So, for ACen, I will be Sasori, Deidara, and Estonia (from Hetalia). If any of you are going to this convention, I hope to see you there~ (I'm quiet, but I'm always up for making new friends! C: )

Anywho, one of Aoi's talents will be explored in this chapter (and it's not drawing, XD).

Many thanks go out to all who reviewed/followed/faved this story. A special shout-out goes to **Robine**! I love reading your reviews; they always make my day~

*I do not own Naruto. If I did, the Akatsuki wouldn't have been killed off so quickly.*

* * *

-Chapter Twelve: Unexpected Talent-

"Something is wrong with your eyes?" Though she couldn't see, Aoi guessed that Deidara was narrowing his eyes. "Let me see." The brunette winced when the Iwa-nin grabbed her chin and tilted her head up, most likely to look into her eyes.

"Just as I thought," he finally stated. "You're under some sort of genjutsu. Oddly enough, you can sense what is going on around you, minus the fact you can't see."

Before she could respond, pain exploded in her stomach. She assumed she was kicked when the force of the blow slammed her into the wall. When she stopped coughing and her eyes stopped watering, she blinked and found that her vision was starting to come back. By the time she regulated her breathing, she could see completely. Though her stomach hurt even more than before, she understood that one of the ways to break a genjutsu was to inflict pain on the person who was caught in it.

"Thanks," she rasped. "Why was I put under an ocular genjutsu when I was already blindfolded?"

Deidara looked like he was about to answer, but a loud growl coming from her stomach stopped him. "I have no idea, un," he finally said, "but you need to eat and drink something. Leader-sama wants to speak with you, and I doubt he wants you to pass out while he's talking."

Aoi nodded, the lack of water burning her throat. She got to her feet, her legs wobbly. When she was about to take a step, she fell forward, only to be hoisted up again by Deidara.

"We don't have all day, un." He narrowed his eyes impatiently. "Just throw your arm around my shoulders; I'll support you until we're at the kitchen."

"Yeah." Aoi complied, liking how the blond's shoulders warmed her freezing arm.

Deidara merely grunted in response and began walking. When the two made it to the kitchen, the brunette's stomach churned, but not only from hunger. She knew that by refusing to kill her target, she lost the smidgen of trust Akatsuki had towards her.

All worries were lost when Deidara handed her a glass of water. She gulped it down and handed it back to him, wanting more.

"Don't drink too fast; you don't want to get sick," the bomber cautioned. "Same goes for food; don't scarf it down."

After Aoi nodded, Deidara gathered some ingredients from the refrigerator and threw them in a pot, presumably to make some sort of soup. He looked over to the brunette, an almost-embarrassed look on his face. "I don't usually cook, so if this dinner tastes like shit…" He let the end of his sentence trail off.

Aoi smiled in response, happy that one of the members was being civil to her. When the soup was finally ready, she had to force herself to eat it at a slow pace. After she ate everything that was in the pot, she rested her head on the table, happy that the pain in her stomach had mostly disappeared. The peace was shattered when the kitchen door burst open, and an unfortunately familiar voice spoke.

"So, the bitch is out of confinement?" Hidan jeered. "I thought Pein-sama would have killed her by now."

Aoi looked up to see the Jashininst's smirk. Kisame and Kakuzu also entered the room, the former joining Hidan and the latter sitting as far away from the silver-haired man as possible.

"Only bandages?" Kisame snickered, flashing a pointy-toothed grin. "I didn't think you were that type of girl, Aoi-chan."

Aoi blushed, not liking the Kiri-nin's tone.

"Tch. I bet the only reason she's still here is because she's fucking one of us." Hidan turned to Deidara. "You seem to have taken an interest in her, Dei-chan…" He smirked and cracked his neck. "Though Tobi is her partner, and he does follow her around. Maybe he's not the 'good boy' he says he is." The immortal laughed, slamming his fist on the table.

Aoi winced at his words, but said nothing, plastering a stoic mask on her face. She flinched when she felt a hand on her shoulder, but relaxed a bit when she realized it belonged to Deidara.

"See?" Hidan cackled. "You're doing it again! You must be really desperate, Blondie. Or maybe you like how weak she is so you can feel in control for once, since you're so whipped by your 'Danna'."

With a growl, Deidara lunged across the table, wrapping his hands around the Jashinist's throat. Hidan retaliated by punching him in the stomach, loosening the hold on him. Before the fight could escalate, Kisame grabbed Deidara and Kakuzu grabbed Hidan, pulling them away from each other.

"You idiots, this is a kitchen!" Kakuzu spat, the odd coloring of his eyes making the gleam in them more frightening. "Do you know how expensive it is to repair an entire room? At least Deidara learned from the last time not to detonate any of his explosive shit in here."

Aoi swore she saw the blond wince. When Kisame let him go, he muttered something under his breath and walked back to her. "Leader-sama probably wants to see us now, un."

The brunette nodded, and the two left the room.

"Oh, so now you're running away? Figures. You're no fun, Deidara-chan. You're such—" The end of Hidan's sentence was suddenly cut off, replaced by a grunt and a loud, "What the fuck, Kakuzu?"

"If you don't quiet yourself, I will sew your mouth shut," the stitched man growled.

Not wanting to be dragged into another argument, Aoi started walking, hoping Deidara would follow her. When she was sure the kitchen was out of earshot, she muttered, "Is that all I am to you?" She didn't usually care about the opinions of others (and if she did, she wouldn't show it), but Hidan's comment stung her more than she thought it would. "I know that in your world, I am considered weak, and I know that I'm considered an expendable tool, but do you all assume I would…?" She let the end of her sentence trail off; she didn't want to say the rest out loud.

"Don't take Hidan's comments seriously." Deidara's voice was sharp, which surprised Aoi. "He is one of the few members who had experiences with women, though his encounters were probably shallow, knowing his _wonderful _personality. Didn't end too well for the bitches, though; Hidan's true love is his religion, un." He chuckled, the tone of it just as sharp as his words. "That's one of the reasons Kakuzu-san hates going on missions with him. If it's nothing too important, Hidan will most likely be distracted by the nightlife."

Aoi nodded, wrinkling her nose. "Delightful."

"Makes me glad Sasori-danna's only love is his work, as disgustingly inartistic as it is."

The brunette narrowed her eyes, noting that the bomber seemed to frown upon the immortal's debauchery.

"So Pein-sama isn't the type to…"

"He won't make you a pleasure-slave, if that's what you're wondering. We might be Akatsuki, but we won't stoop that low. And besides…" He smirked. "I doubt you'd appeal to any of us, anyway, un."

Aoi wasn't sure if Deidara was joking or being serious, but she shrugged the comment off. Hearing that she wasn't attractive to males wasn't new to her. In fact, it was so common that it affected her as much as 'please pass the salt' did.

"Aren't you going to object? Cry? Blush?" The smirk got wider.

Before she could stop herself, she coldly blurted out, "Aren't you going to shut up?" She clapped a hand over her mouth, realizing what she said and who she said it to.

Deidara looked at her, his visible eye narrowing a tad. He raised his hand, and Aoi flinched and closed her eyes, thinking that she was going to be hit. Instead, she felt the bomber's hand pat her shoulder, the tongue of his palm-mouth licking her skin.

"You're the first non-Akatsuki member to say that to me." He grinned. "You're interesting."

Before Aoi could respond, the blond guided her to a familiar door and knocked on it. Seemingly right on cue, Pein answered it. When he turned to look at Aoi, she shivered; his face looked more menacing than usual.

"Enter."

The two complied. As soon as they were both in the room, Pein shut the door.

"I have gone over the mission report that Deidara-san wrote," he began. "Though it was technically a success, Aoi-san failed to kill her target. Girl!" He turned his gaze on Aoi. "Explain."

Nauseous, Aoi wrung her hands to calm herself down. "In my world, people are not trained to kill others. Ninja don't exist anymore, and we are taught from around age four to age twenty-two in different levels of schooling. Jobs in my world consist of salesmen, businesspeople, waitresses, teachers, etc. The only really violent jobs that exist are law enforcement and the military."

"So what you are saying is that you did not kill the girl because it went against your culture?" Pein narrowed his eyes.

Aoi nodded. "I…I just couldn't do it. I apologize, Leader-sama."

"Deidara-san mentioned that you would be willing to do other jobs, such as spying. Is that true?"

"Yes." Aoi answered this more confidently. "While I know that I will not be able to kill anyone, I am certainly able to get information for you. People usually don't notice me, and when they do, they underestimate me. Since I do not have any chakra, I believe that most people will think I am weak and harmless, so it will be easier to get information."

"People here are usually wary of strangers—that is part of _our _culture—so I think you are being very idealistic. However, you do need a job here, and we don't need any more botched missions, so I will take you up on your offer."

"Will she still be partnered with Tobi, un?" Deidara wrinkled his nose. "He's not exactly subtle."

"Deidara-san, stay out of this." Pein's tone got dangerously low.

The bomber narrowed his eyes, the glare in them showing a discreet display of defiance.

Pein raised his eyebrow at the blond before continuing. "You did remind me of something, Deidara-san. Once this meeting is finished, take Aoi-san back to your room. She will pack up all her belongings, and then you will take her to Tobi-san's room. Since they are partners, they will be sharing a room from now on."

Aoi's heart rate sped up. Sharing a room with Obito meant that she would be alone with him while they slept. She did not want to be manipulated by him, or worse.

Deidara must have seen the alarm on her face; he slightly tilted his head. "What happened to the old system? I liked having my own room."

Pein pinched the bridge of his nose. "That was in the old base. The one you and Hidan-san destroyed. This one is smaller, and Kakuzu-san said that it would save money. And it has."

Deidara said nothing more, but Aoi caught the smirk that darted across his face, most likely reminiscing about when he was able to use his 'art'.

"Would you wait outside for a moment, Deidara-san? I need to discuss something with Aoi-san privately." Though the sentence was phrased as a question, it was definitely an order. With a curt nod, Deidara left the room.

Once the door was closed, Pein made a few hand signs. "Soundproofing jutsu," he explained. "Deidara-san is inquisitive, and I don't need any more people knowing the identity of 'Tobi'."

Aoi nodded. Internally, she was almost snickering; only she and Zetsu, and now Itachi, knew the _true _identity of the masked man.

"There is a reason why I made you two partners," the pierced man continued. "I am starting to get suspicious of Madara; I want you to keep an eye on him. Since you are the only one who knows the future, you are the best one to keep tabs on him."

"But…" Aoi looked down.

"I admit, he went a bit…overboard…with your punishment, but I can see why he did it. As long as you don't antagonize him, I'm sure he will leave you alone. I doubt he wants the other, more perceptive members such as Sasori-san to catch onto his real identity."

Seeing as there was no way to convince Pein otherwise (he was her superior, after all), the brunette nodded again. "Of course, Leader-sama."

"Very good. You are dismissed."

Aoi took this as her cue to leave. She slowly exited the room, and nearly bumped into Deidara, who had been standing right by the door. Without saying a word, she began the trek back to her (former) room.

"I take it you're still stuck with the Orange Menace?"

Aoi looked at the blond, for once not hiding her weariness. "Yes."

"Yeesh, that's unfortunate, un. And now you have to sleep with him! Well, sleep in the same room with him, but you know what I mean."

"I know. I would rather stay with you and Sasori-san, but Leader-sama ordered this."

"Heh, you don't want to leave because we're so good looking?" The smirk was back.

Aoi chuckled, but the sound was cold.

"I'm surprised. Most women would kill to be in your position. They're stupid bitches who don't know or care who we are and only focus on our appearances, but at the same time, that's the typical reaction women give us. Well, most of us. Kisame-danna, Zetsu-san, and Kakuzu-san are excluded. Why do you think Sasori-danna hides in that grotesque puppet of his? Kisame-san, who was drunk at the time, told me that women used to throw themselves at Danna, and he was annoyed by it, so that's why he disguises himself. That can't be the only reason, but I'm sure it's one of them, un."

"Why do you care so much if I find you attractive or not?" Aoi was starting to sense a pattern in their conversations.

"No reason. It's just refreshing to see a woman with no interest in romance. I myself don't see the point to it; it dulls the senses and is a total cliché."

"Hmm…" The brunette noted the fact that Deidara referred to her as a woman instead of the usual 'girl'.

"Don't give me that look. Art is my only love, un. It's the only thing I can count on."

"I don't doubt it." The sincerity in the blond's voice was clear to Aoi.

"So… Do you swing the other way?" Deidara raised an eyebrow.

Aoi sighed, wondering why he was perpetuating the conversation. "No, I do not. Just because I don't care about the appearances of men doesn't mean I prefer women. With that being said, I care more about intelligence and ideals than gender, so if I do end up falling for a woman, so be it. I guess you could say I 'swing both ways'." She shrugged, not quite believing she was having a conversation about her orientation with _Deidara_ of all people. "However, what do I know? I've never been attracted to anyone of any gender. How should I know what I like if I do not really care? I'd rather focus more on drawing, something that actually matters to me."

"Tch. You sound just like him."

"Who?"

"Sasori-danna. We both care for our…work…more than petty romance—" Aoi knew that the blond didn't want to call his partner's puppetry 'art', "—but your tone sounds almost like his. Stop it. Don't be like him."

"What?" Now Aoi was confused.

"The life of Akasuna no Sasori is miserable," was all he said. "Don't lose sight of yourself, or you'll find yourself an emotionless, hollow shell of your former glory."

Aoi tilted her head, only understanding some of what the bomber warned. She knew of the redhead's backstory, but didn't think Deidara knew. _He probably doesn't, but he's not stupid. He's with Sasori constantly; he probably picked up on his loneliness._

The two walked in silence until they arrived at their room. Aoi quickly packed up her stuff and snagged another shirt of Sasori's—she doubted he would miss it—before leaving. When they made it to Obito's room, Deidara nodded at her before walking off. "I don't want the shit to notice me," was his explanation for leaving so soon. Suddenly drained, she quickly entered her new room and flopped down on the bed on the unlived side of it.

"So nice of you to join me, Aoi-chan." Suddenly the light flashed on, and Aoi sat up, finding herself almost face-to-mask with Obito, who had leaned over her.

"Hello, Obito-san." She thought it was time to address him as his true identity.

"Ah, coming to your senses and using my real name, now? The docility is refreshing. Maybe I should have whipped you sooner."

"So it was you." Aoi's heart was in her throat.

"Of course it was. If a subordinate team member botches a mission, the leader of the partnership is in charge of their punishment. Standard protocol, really." Aoi could sense that the man was smiling under his mask. "Let's cut the small-talk, shall we? Since you know all about my true identity, you must know the real Madara Uchiha is dead."

"Yes…" The brunette wasn't sure where this conversation was going.

"So you know about the Eye of the Moon Plan?"

"Of course."

"Does it get set into motion? And what are the outcomes? As you know, I want to be prepared."

Aoi felt even more nauseous than before. She knew exactly what would happen in the war, and she did not want to reveal the weaknesses and plans of the Allied Shinobi forces. It was bad enough that Inoichi Yamanaka and Shikaku Nara had been killed, among others, but she did not want to aid in the killing of Neji Hyuuga.

"I know about your plan," she finally stated, making sure to sound neutral, "but I do not know any details about what happens."

"Do you take me as a fool, girl?" Obito snarled, leaning closer. "Itachi said that you don't know anything besides what you initially told us, but I know you two know more."

The light bounced off the masked man's visible eye, and showed that his Sharingan was activated.

Aoi squeezed her eyes shut and looked away. Because she couldn't see anything, she didn't realize Obito's plan until too late. She found herself being thrown off of the bed and kicked onto her back, a foot pressing heavily on her chest. Not wanting the Sharingan to be used on her, and her information given up, she kept her eyes shut and endured the pain of both her freshly healed injuries being agitated and the pressure on her ribs. She did nothing when Obito's foot was removed and she was yanked upwards by one wrist.

"I won't break anything," Obito stated, his voice smooth. "I don't want Kakuzu-san needing an explanation for your injuries. However, everything else is fair game."

He continued to tug on her wrist, making sure to use enough force to strain it, but not enough to break it. Aoi whimpered, still not used to the amount of pain she was receiving.

She landed painfully on her knees when Obito let her go. Without thinking, she squinted and ran for the door. The taller man grabbed her hair and slammed her forehead into the wall before allowing her to run out. "I have a long time to convince you to share your wonderful information with me," he warned, his voice almost playful. "We will have so much fun together!" The last sentence was said in the chirpy tone he used as Tobi.

Aoi didn't stick around to hear any more. Fully opening her eyes, she ran down the hallway, wanting to get as far away from Obito as possible. After awhile, she stopped, sinking to the ground, exhausted. Not caring that she was going to sleep in a hallway, she curled up, cradling her aching wrist to her chest.

* * *

Sasori was not an easily-surprised man, but that didn't stop him from being mildly startled when he nearly tripped over something in the hallway. He knew this one like the back of his hand (he frequently used it to walk from his room to the lab where he created his human puppets and poisons), so he was intrigued when he felt something solid nudge against his foot. Reaching his hand out, he felt along the side of the wall until he found the light switch he knew would be there. Not caring about Kakuzu's opinion on the electric bill (he was sure the miser was asleep, anyway), he flipped it on. He became mildly interested (key word, _mildly_) when he realized that Aoi was curled up, asleep. He was told by Deidara that the girl would be sharing a room with Tobi from now on, so he was a tad bit curious as to why she was sleeping in a hallway, especially one so far away from her room. And since his social tact had slowly diminished from years of being a human puppet, he knelt down and roughly shook her shoulders.

The girl's eyes snapped open, looking extremely fearful before they closed tightly. She sat up and turned her head away from him, backing up until she hit the wall.

"Aoi-san?" Sasori asked, now fully intrigued. _Something really scared her. _He noticed the way she held one of her wrists and he narrowed his eyes. _Whatever it was hurt her, too. Unless she's just clumsy, and she fell and hurt herself. Stupid girl. _

"S-Sasori-san?" Aoi slowly opened her eyes and relaxed, her face falling back into the neutral expression she often wore.

"Why are you sleeping here? Did you get lost again?"

"Ah, no. Tobi-san was…really happy…to see me, and he kept hugging me. He ended up grabbing my wrist too enthusiastically. After he finally settled down, he wouldn't shut up, so I left. Ugh, I can see why Deidara-san wants to punch him all the time!"

_That's a lie. _Sasori wasn't stupid by any means. He could sense there was another, darker reason she left, and his gut (metaphorically, of course) told him it had something to do with the masked man. He heard about her punishment for screwing up the mission from Deidara, and he even saw the damage for himself. However, he decided he would ignore this for now, instead bringing up a topic that was bothering him ever since Deidara had come back from the now-infamous Takayama Junko mission. _Maybe finding her here was a good thing, after all._ "The brat mentioned something…interesting…to me. Something that you told him."

Rubbing the tiredness out of her eyes, she tilted her head. "What?"

"You said that if you died here, you wanted your corpse to be given to me, so that I could turn it into a puppet. That's a pretty unusual wish, don't you think?"

Aoi's eyes widened, and Sasori could have sworn that she blushed.

"Have you ever heard of Thanatophobia, Sasori-san?" Pausing for a moment, she chuckled. "Of course you haven't; the name comes from the ancient Greeks, and Greece doesn't exist here, as far as I know. Basically, Thanatophobia is the strong fear of dying and death. It doesn't drastically affect my life, so you can say that I have only a mild version of it. However, it does somewhat affect my life. Remember when you asked me why I hated my birthday? It's not for some petty reason like not being able to draw all day, like I told you before. No, it is because with each birthday, I am closer to dying. I am reminded that life is fleeting, too short." She shook her head. "I'm not stupid; I know that I will die someday. When Deidara-san attacked me because he thought I was betraying him, I thought I was going to die there. Though my spirit might have disappeared if he had gone through with it, my corpse would still remain. And it would remain until it started to decompose. At that moment, I realized that even if I passed on there was a way that my body could be kept eternally preserved. Your wonderful talent for making human puppets. I figured you wouldn't mind; one more puppet to add to your collection, right? But then again, I don't have any chakra, so what value would I have?"

Sasori was shocked, an emotion that rarely appeared, not even when he was still human. No one had ever _volunteered _their body to become part of his collection when they died. Even his fellow Akatsuki members thought his artform was at best creepy and at worst downright disgusting. _There's more to her than I first thought. I wonder… _

"Aoi-san."

The sudden sound made her snap to attention. "Yes?"

"Follow me. I want to show you something."

The girl tilted her head once more, but complied, following the puppet master until they reached a door.

"Wear this. It's cold where we are going." He unsnapped his cloak and handed it to her. She quickly put it on, probably happy for the extra warmth. He led her down the stairs and down another hallway before he pulled open the last door, ushering her inside. When he flipped the light switch, he saw that Aoi's nose was wrinkled. _That's right. It probably smells down here. _He never really noticed an odor, but it was probably because he had no olfactory system.

"This is my workshop for poisons. It is also where I create my human puppets." He guided the brunette over to a large steel cabinet, where one of his…works in progress…was stationed. He twisted a combination lock until he heard the telltale 'click', and opened the door, sliding a steel table with a corpse of a blonde woman out.

"This is Kobayashi Mai. She was a pretty powerful kunoichi from Kusagakure. She was sent after the brat and I after we stole some important documents. She engaged me in battle, I accepted, and I won. Now, she will be a part of my collection. I have preserved the body, but I have not even begun to alter it, yet."

Aoi nodded, her eyes wide. Sasori raised an eyebrow; though she looked afraid, he could see the fascination in her eyes.

"For someone who refuses to kill people, you seem to be very interested in my artform, though it is based on death. This isn't a puppet yet; this is still a human that I killed."

"I know." Aoi's voice was quiet. "But by using this woman's corpse as your puppet, it shows that she was powerful, and was worthy to become a part of your collection. I feel like you are honoring her talents in some way, by preserving her for eternity. However, that doesn't mean I don't feel sadness for this woman, and the friends and family she left behind to grieve. I am human, Sasori-san, meaning I still find this sickening. You are a terrifying man."

Sasori narrowed his eyes. He had the same mentality about his collection, but he never met anyone that shared it. _This is a civilian brat who refuses to kill and is afraid of death, but is for some reason interested in making weapons out of the dead. Not only that, but she still manages to keep her weak nature and sympathy. This is an interesting turn of events. _A plan suddenly appeared in his mind, and he smirked. _Let's see if she has some worth._

"Tell me, Aoi-san. Where would you suggest adding hidden weapons?"

The girl narrowed her eyes and tilted her head, staring at the corpse. "Add a mechanism that shoots senbon—poison soaked, of course—from her mouth. Maybe add hidden blades in the armature that will make up her arms so that she can still do damage even if an arm is removed. Hmm…" She paused for a moment. "What about adding a mechanism in her throat, or even palms, that can spew poison gas. Even if it's just a nonlethal one, it could be enough to slow an opponent down enough to fini—" She let the end of her sentence trail off, her eyes widening. Clenching her fists, she looked down. "Defensive mechanisms can't be overlooked. Reinforce the puppet's weak spots with stronger materials, and maybe add chakra shields to its arms."

Sasori noted how she started calling the corpse an 'it' later in her speech, and how she became more scientific.

"Though that was not the best answer," he finally said. "It was not the worst I've heard." _Maybe this is why I couldn't kill her. _"How would you like to help me with this one, to see if your ideas work?"

The brunette's face paled. "I…I don't know. Theorizing ideas is one thing, but actually helping you?"

"Look." Sasori's voice was cold, yet not unkind. "Until you have a proper job here, Pein-sama will keep sending you on missions, waiting until you are intimidated enough to kill someone. He says you'll be a spy, but he will try to work assassinations into missions eventually. He doesn't truly understand that killing isn't commonplace, minus criminal murder, I'm assuming, in your world. He needs to know that you are pulling your weight. Would you rather kill someone yourself, or help me alter a corpse? It cannot feel pain, and you will learn a new craft. You also said that my collection is actually honoring the dead ninja."

Aoi stood stiffly for a few moments. "Very well," she finally whispered. "I'll help you."

Sasori nodded. "I will let Leader-sama know in the morning. Do you have any knowledge of chemistry?"

"I was in AP Chem when I was in school. That's the highest level chemistry class offered. It's a college-level class, meaning it for students older than me, but I am taking it because I showed aptitude in the subject."

"You might be able to help me with the poisons as well."

After a few more moments of silence, Sasori gestured for Aoi to leave. As soon as she exited the room, the puppeteer turned off the light and closed the door behind him. Instead of taking the girl back to her new room with Tobi, he beckoned for her to follow him to his. Throwing a pillow on the floor, he sighed as he watched her curl up, almost falling to sleep instantly. He went over the turn of events in his drowsy mind, almost smirking at how the girl reacted to his art. However, his eyes snapped open when he realized he asked the brunette to practically be his apprentice. _Shit! What's going on? _He was supposed to be Akasuna no Sasori, the solitary statue, less sociable than _Uchiha Itachi_. And now he took on a girl who wasn't even from his world under his wing. To make human puppets. The artform he took the most pride in. _Shit. _Sasori buried his face into his pillow and cursed himself until he fell asleep.

* * *

Haha, bet you weren't expecting that! XD

I wanted to add some comedy to at least the beginning of the chapter, so I added Hidan and Kakuzu to the scene in the kitchen (those two are comedic gold, XD).

Ugh, I feel like I wrote Deidara weirdly in this chapter. He's not being mean, but he's not being completely nice, either. I wanted to show his cocky side in this one, since that is a big part of his personality. However, I wanted to show that he has a tad bit of respect for Aoi, since she doesn't act like the other women he encountered.

Speaking of which, I heard somewhere that Hidan was celibate because of Jashinism, but I couldn't find it online when I searched, so I decided to have him be the member who's had romantic (if they could be called that) encounters with women. I might change this later if someone points me to a character bio that states Hidan is focused on his religion and _only _his religion.

In my head-canon, Deidara is too focused on his art for romance. I'm not saying that he'll never be in a relationship, but in my opinion, it would take a while, if ever, before he becomes interested in someone romantically. He's just too focused on other things, to me.

Haha, the ironic thing about this chapter is that I just recently started dating someone at my college. I am super-new to dating, so I am puzzled as to what to do, XD. I'm just planning on taking this as slow as I possibly can, since dating really isn't what I want to focus on…

Anywho, back to the story A/N, XD.

Hopefully Pein wasn't too OOC.

It took me forever to write Obito's part, and I still feel that there's something off with it, but after editing it five times, I think this is the best I've got, XDD.

The part that I am worried about the most, though, is the scene with Sasori. I really, really hope he isn't too OOC, especially since he sort of took Aoi under his wing at the end. (However, he himself doesn't understand exactly why, at the moment, XD.) I have a lot of fun writing his scenes, so hopefully, I am writing him adequately.

If Aoi seemed sort of weird during this part, remember that she's really tired and really startled (if not afraid) from her incident with Obito.  
Also, don't forget that this scene was written from Sasori's point of view. Aoi's thoughts aren't written out, so you don't know what her real thoughts about becoming Sasori's almost-apprentice are.

Also, she's not stupid. She knows that she is revealing her weakness to Sasori, but it's only because she thinks that they are similar, and that he would somewhat understand her. (Plus, it helped in her answer to his question.)

Hopefully, her opinion of Sasori's human puppets isn't too far-fetched. I wanted to show that she has respect for his art, yet is at the same time terrified of it. Contrary to the stereotype, Aoi has both an artistic mind and a scientific one. Her favorite subjects are chemistry and art, oddly enough.

And because I loved reading the Naruto databook entries, I created one for Aoi, XD. (I am such a dork.)

Ninja ID: N/A

Age: 18

Birthday: November 25 (Sagittarius [though she doesn't match her sign, XD])

Height: 152.40cm (5'0)

Weight: 47.7kg (105lbs)

Blood Type: AB

Personality: Cold, intellectual, artistic

Favorite food: Lemon-pepper chicken

Least favorite food: Spicy curry

Wants to fight: Her bullies

Favorite phrase: 'Art is life'

Hobby: Drawing, reading classics

Haha, with that dorkiness out of the way, see you next chapter~


	14. Chapter Thirteen

Hello! Since I'm in a writing mood, I've decided just to go ahead and write the next chapter!

Haha, I'm spazzy because my Deidara shirt is finished, and the wig just shipped out yesterday. Once I get it, my cosplay is complete~

…I really should be doing my Japanese homework and four-page-plus-annotated-bibliography prospectus for my Russian Revolution class, but I am so not in the mood. (Ugh, why do professors assign so much homework over freaking spring break? D: )

Many thanks go to everyone who reviewed! (And added this to their favorites/followed it.) You all are awesome. Special thanks go to **Robine **and **evil. mastermind**** no.1**. Your reviews always make me smile. C:

This chapter will be Sasori-centric, so if you like him, yay! (I think he is my favorite Akatsuki member to write about, with Deidara coming in close second.)

The beginning part might sound a bit confusing, but I think it will make sense. (I'll explain more in the ending A/N.)

*I do not own Naruto. If I did, Neji would not have died.*

* * *

-Chapter Thirteen: Art-

Julius sat in his chair in the kitchen, his head in his hands. "Where do you think she went?"

"I have no idea," responded Rosaline.

When Aoi never came back from the art store, they were frantic, driving there themselves. They found her car, locked, in the parking lot. However, the store was obviously closed, so they decided to do a little investigating. When they searched the perimeter of the building, they found nothing out of the ordinary. Their first thought was that she went to stay with a friend for the night, since they noticed she looked a bit upset when she left. However, they realized that was a stupid thought when they remembered that their daughter didn't have any friends (at least none that they knew of). All she had were her books, DVDs, and art supplies. When they got home, they called the police, ready to report a missing person. Since Aoi was a minor, they accepted the call immediately. However, since it hadn't been twenty-four hours, they couldn't do anything. They suggested that the two wait, and maybe Aoi would come back. (They dealt with a lot of cases with 'missing' teenagers who showed up at their houses a few days later.)

Obviously, Julius and Rosaline were angry. They knew that Aoi was not the type of girl just to get up and leave, so they decided to take matters into their own hands. The next day, they went back to the art store and decided to ask the employees if they saw anything suspicious. No one had any information until they talked to a tall young man with dyed-orange hair and a lip piercing. He said that he had seen Aoi fall down the stairs and hit her forehead on a table next to it. He was planning on helping her, but when he walked over to the stairs, no one was there. The only thing that showed that someone fell was a bloodstain on the edge of the table. When Rosaline looked closer, she narrowed her eyes, noticing that the stain looked like something. A small red cloud.

It had been almost two months since their daughter's disappearance, and both Julius and Rosaline were starting to give up hope. The police said they would let them know if they found anything, but so far, nothing. It was almost as though Aoi Coulter had disappeared off the face of the Earth…

* * *

When Sasori woke, he noticed that both Aoi and Deidara were still asleep. Both had peaceful expressions on their faces, unlike the cold façade the former put up and the overconfident one the latter displayed. Making sure not to disturb his roommates, he threw on some new clothes and brushed his unruly hair (not that it did much). He waited until he was out of the room before cracking his joints. The sound relaxed him, and helped him de-stress. (He was about to meet Pein, after all.)

The pierced man was once again in his office. He said nothing, merely narrowing his eyes, when the redhead requested to talk to him.

"I have found a job for Aoi-san," Sasori began.

"She already agreed to gather information with Tobi."

"I discovered that she has a talent that might prove more useful."

Pein raised an eyebrow. "What is it, Sasori-san? She has no chakra network, meaning she'd have no potential for ninjutsu or genjutsu—therefore she can't possibly have a kekkei-genkai—and she's too weak for taijutsu."

"She seems to have an aptitude for my art."

"Puppetry?" If Sasori didn't know any better, he would have thought Pein looked…shocked. "You don't seem to be the type who would take on an apprentice. What are you planning?"

"At the time, nothing." The redhead pinched the bridge of his nose. "I have no idea why I invited her to my workshop yesterday, but I did, and she's interested in helping me with my…special…puppets."

"Human puppets, Sasori-san? She's going to help you make _human _puppets? How did you convince her? Did you poison her?"

"No." The puppet master made sure his face looked bored and impassive. "I asked her whether she wanted to go on missions or help me with my creations, and she chose the latter. I guess she'd rather dissect corpses than kill them."

"Are you sure about this, Sasori-san?"

"Yes." The redhead narrowed his eyes. "And if it turns out she has no use, I will kill her myself." _Even though you were so _successful _the last time? _he berated himself. Blinking, he turned back to Pein. "Is this all right, Leader-sama?"

"Very well," stated the pierced man. "However, she will remain Tobi's partner, and continue to live with him. And if a mission arises that needs her assistance, she will go."

"Thank you." Taking this as his cue to leave, Sasori bowed his head before exiting the room.

* * *

Deidara stretched, cracking his neck before sliding out of bed. He looked down and saw that Aoi was on the floor, sleeping. _When did she come here? Did Tobi really annoy her that much? Or did something else happen? _After the incident with her leg and her 'punishment' for botching the Takayama Junko mission, he was becoming more and more suspicious of the masked man. _Though he's been bugging me less, which is a good thing. _

He looked closer and saw that she was wearing an Akatsuki cloak, the bulky fabric swallowing her small figure. He saw that his own cloak was where he left it, but Sasori's was missing. _She's wearing Danna's? _Why the puppet master allowed her to wear his cloak was beyond Deidara, and it puzzled him. _Come to think of it, he has been acting strangely. _Stretching again, he rubbed the tiredness out of his eyes and grabbed his clothes. He stopped again when he noticed something red on the floor. Looking closer, he realized it was blood.

Narrowing his eyes, he knelt down and unsnapped the cloak. When he removed her arms from it, he saw that the back of the shirt she was wearing had some darker stains on it. He pulled the fabric up, and found that blood seeped through the bandages on her back. Some was drying, but he could tell there were still some open wounds by the way a few of the splotches were fresh. _What happened now? _Not sure what to do, he fixed her shirt and laid her back down, also noticing a bruise that was beginning to form on her forehead. He was about to put the cloak back on when he felt there was blood on it, too. _Heh. Sasori's going to throw a fit. _He smirked, anticipating the puppeteer's reaction.

Picking up the clothes he dropped, he made his way to the bathroom, ready for a nice shower. He couldn't make it too long, though; he knew that Kakuzu would maim him if he used up too much hot water. Sighing, he let the water and steam envelop him. After he washed his hair with care (it was his pride and joy, after all), he cracked his neck once more and reluctantly turned the water off. When he finally exited the bathroom, he noticed that Aoi was sitting on his bed. In any other circumstance, he would have told her to sit somewhere else, but her hand was on her chest, and her face was contorted in an expression of pain. She tried to hide it, of course, but he could see right through her façade.

"What's wrong?" He wasn't completely concerned, but at the same time, he considered the girl to be an ally, and he enjoyed talking with her.

"Nothing. I'm okay. I—" She stopped mid-sentence, overtaken by a coughing fit. When she moved her hand away from her mouth, Deidara could see there was blood on it.

"I'm not stupid, Aoi-san." The blond narrowed his eyes.

Aoi seemed to deflate, her shoulders sinking. "It's the device in my chest. I think Tobi-san agitated it last night."

"What did the shit do now, un?"

Aoi deadpanned. "He tackle-glomped me."

"Tackle-glomp?"

"He attacked me with a hug and knocked me over."

"Ah." Though her explanation didn't seem too far-fetched (he himself was at the receiving end of many 'glomps'), he could sense that she was lying. "I know there's more to it than that." Deidara was itching for Tobi to get kicked out of the organization, and disobeying their leader seemed to be the best way. "I know there's something more to him; no one can be that stupid and still be a member—er, _honorary _member—of this organization."

Aoi chuckled darkly. "You're smarter than anyone gives you credit for. I do not want any premature conflicts, but I will say that you're right. Tobi is…darker…than he wants you to believe. That is all I will say, though." She wrapped one arm around her body and the other hand around her mouth when she coughed again. Once she got her breathing under control, she wiped her lips.

"Aoi." Deidara didn't bother with the honorific; he was getting impatient. He also hated his questions being unanswered. He grabbed the girl's shoulders. "Who is Tobi?"

The brunette's eyes widened before she squeezed them shut and turned away. "Not again," she murmured.

The bomber let her go, intrigued by her actions. _'Not again'? What does she mean? _At first he thought that she was referring to being whipped, but from the way she was so quick to shut her eyes, he was starting to sense that she meant something else entirely. _She was blindfolded during her punishment. _Suddenly, an answer came to him. _Sharingan. _He knew that Itachi had interrogated her when she first arrived, so he assumed she was reminded of it.

He was snapped from his thoughts when Sasori entered the room. "Aoi-san. You will eat breakfast, and then meet me back here. I want to begin working as soon as possible."

"Yes, Sasori-san," she answered, looking glad to change the subject.

"What project, un?" Deidara was getting pretty tired of being kept out of the loop.

"She will be helping me with one of my puppets, since she has proven to have a slight aptitude for it."

"What?"

"You heard me. Or did your obnoxious explosions make you finally go deaf?"

The bomber was going to retort, but was interrupted by more coughing.

"Brat. What's the matter with her?" Sasori narrowed his eyes.

"She said she thinks the device in her chest got agitated when Tobi tackle-hugged her last night, un."

The redhead raised an eyebrow and turned to Aoi. "My chakra supply is adequate for healing; do you want me to look at it, or do you want to go to Kakuzu-san?"

Aoi shook her head. "I don't think I can move without coughing. I have no idea what happened; I was fine last night."

Sasori sighed, as though he just realized something. "If you want me to heal you, you'll have to let me undo the bandages."

The brunette's eyes widened, and she blushed. "Do they have to be undone?"

"That device is on your chest, isn't it? If you want me to see what's wrong with it, yes."

Deidara snickered.

"Don't be immature, brat. I dissect my projects before turning them into puppets, and many of them are female, meaning I've seen naked bodies."

At the word 'naked', Aoi grasped the cloak tighter. After another coughing fit, she bowed her head. "Fine."

Deidara leaned closer as the girl removed the cloak and the shirt, only to be slapped on the back of the head by his partner.

"Look away, brat."

"Fine," he grumbled. _Stupid puppet. _He turned his head, only to look back again when he heard the bandages being placed on the ground. His eye nearly twitched when he saw Sasori place his hand on Aoi's chest, almost resting on her breasts. _That looks so weird… _Smirking, he looked closer, enjoying the view until his partner's foot stomped on his own. Cursing in his mind, he closed his eyes.

"The wounds on your back have reopened again," Sasori noted aloud. "Was this also a result of Tobi's…enthusiasm?"

"Yes," she muttered. "I can see why Deidara-san wants to kill him."

Deidara nearly chuckled. He almost missed Aoi's sigh of relief, as well as a quiet 'Thank you' directed at Sasori. Thinking that the girl was decent again, he opened his eyes. Much to his relief (as well as a bit of disappointment), he was right.

"I did what I could; nothing is completely healed, but with time, the wounds on your back will close," Sasori cautioned. "Don't be stupid and trip over something; I can't keep healing you. I don't want to use up my chakra on you; you're not worth it."

Aoi nodded. Deidara grinned, an idea forming in his mind. _Let's see how she'd react to this. _While he wasn't being completely malicious, a new hobby of his was getting the girl to express more emotions. It was amusing to him, but it also showed that she wasn't exactly like Sasori, which for some reason relieved him.

"I take back what I said before, Aoi-san."

"What?" She tilted her head, obviously puzzled.

"I'm sure a lot of people here would…appreciate…you. You have a nice figure, un."

Blushing, Aoi wrapped her arms more securely sound her chest, looking down.

"Shut up, brat," Sasori snapped.

"Oh, like you don't agree, un." Deidara's smirk grew, hoping to get a rise out of his partner as well.

"Actually, I don't," was the puppet master's cold response. "All I was focusing on was healing her. Why would I care about what she looks like? I just wanted to get the job done as soon as possible." Deidara noticed that there was a tone to his words that was different than his usual responses. _What was that all about?_

Glaring at the blond, Sasori gestured for Aoi to stand up. "I'll come with you to breakfast, seeing as though you aren't competent enough to remember which hallway leads to the kitchen." Despite the redhead's harsh words, he didn't speak them as scathingly as he typically did. Deidara narrowed his eyes, beginning to pick up a pattern.

Once the two left, he sat on his bed, grinning to himself. _That was fun. _

* * *

After an uneventful breakfast, Sasori led a silent Aoi down to his workshop. The girl remained quiet until the corpse was rolled out again.

"So," she said. "What are your plans for this?"

"We have to remove the organs and drain the body, first." The redhead walked over to another cabinet, where he grabbed two lab aprons and two sets of gloves. "Put these on; I don't want anything to get on my shirt. And take the cloak off; the sleeves will get in the way."

Aoi complied. Sasori could sense that she was cold without it, since all she wore was a short-sleeved shirt and the standard Akatsuki pants, but raised an eyebrow at the fact that she didn't complain. Turning away from the girl, he grabbed all the necessary tools and containers and placed them on a table next to the corpse. "Do you need me to explain what to do, or do you already know?"

"I don't know the specifics, but I get the basics, since I dissected a cat in AP Bio last year."

"I take it this 'AP Bio' is a class on the same level as the chemistry class you were taking before you came here."

Aoi nodded. "I was the only junior—that's what we call third years—in the class, which was meant for seniors. It was so much fun. I like Chem better, though…" For a moment, a faraway look appeared in her eyes, though it was gone in an instant. "Just tell me what to do, and I'll start working."

"Very well," stated the puppeteer. "I will make the standard Y-incision and pin the skin back. Once that is finished, you will remove the ribs. However, make sure to remove them in one or two pieces. Don't get crazy with the bone saw; I need the bones later so I can reinforce an armature to them."

"Understood."

The two worked in silence, the only noise being the whir of the bone saw and Sasori occasionally giving instructions. Said redhead watched Aoi, begrudgingly realizing that she was indeed a natural at this craft. After all the organs were removed (and packaged into containers so that Kakuzu could sell them later), Sasori gently flipped the corpse onto its side and let all the excess liquids drain into a bucket. When he was sure that it was empty, he injected more preservatives into the skin. After that job was completed, he rolled the corpse and table back into its storage freezer and began cleaning up. Once all the equipment was in the sink, he removed his apron and gloves and threw them in as well. Aoi did the same. Without being told to, she took the initiative to begin washing everything.

After everything was put away, the two left the lab. It had been five hours since they first started, and Sasori could tell that Aoi was exhausted and probably hungry. As soon as the lab was locked, she sank to the floor, leaning against the wall.

"Tired?" Sasori tilted his head.

"I'm okay," she said, though the puppet master could sense the weariness in her voice.

Surprisingly, he found himself sitting next to her. "You did better than I expected, girl. While some of your cuts were sloppy, your removal of the heart, as well as the eyes, was more than satisfactory. You have potential."

She nodded, a tired smile appearing on her face. "Thank you. I guess taking AP Bio was worth the social suicide."

Sasori said nothing, but gestured for her to continue by tilting his head.

"I was never liked to begin with," she finally said. "People hung around me only to use me for my intelligence. After awhile, I got sick of it, and decided to ignore them. They gave up on trying to get me to cheat for them, but instead, they used my intelligence as an excuse to pick on me in any way they could. Not to mention the fact that I was in art classes. Heh, that added fuel to their fire; apparently, liking to draw was freakish, to them." She chuckled darkly. "That's why I was always so fascinated by you. The more I learned about you, the more I wanted to meet you. I always thought that would be impossible…" She cracked her neck, the sound echoing throughout the empty hallway. "I nearly cried when I saw your backstory, you know. I know your grandmother was just trying to look out for you, but she went about it in the wrong way. I wish—"

Before she could finish her sentence, Sasori grabbed her shoulders and leaned over her. "Where did you get that information?"

"I told you, I know mostly everything about this organization and all its members," Aoi whispered. The redhead smirked at the fear in her eyes. When he let her go, the fear turned to something else entirely. Sadness. Smiling softly, she kneeled and leaned closer. Before Sasori had time to move, she wrapped her arms around him.

The sharp feeling in his heart was back. However, instead of slapping, kicking, or strangling the girl, he found himself leaning into her embrace. _What the hell? Why am I reacting this way? _After a few moments, he began to feel a warmth that started in his heart and spread to his face. Suddenly feeling trapped, he pushed the brunette away and stood up, trying to figure out what the hell was going on. Shaking his head, he prepared to kick Aoi. However, he ended up moving his foot back where it was before when he saw her bow her head.

"I'm sorry," she muttered. "I thought that you deserved to know what a real hug felt like, since you never got one."

Sasori narrowed his eyes and nodded slowly. "Get up. You missed lunch, but if we leave now, I'm sure you can eat some of the leftovers. At least if Kisame-san didn't get to them first."

Without saying a word, Aoi stood up and followed the puppet master upstairs. When they got to the kitchen, he prepared to leave, not in the mood to watch her eat.

However, before he could process what happened, he turned around and muttered, "Thank you."

Her eyes widening, Aoi tilted her head, then nodded once.

Cracking his neck in frustration for the unpredictability of his typically predictable actions, Sasori finally left the room, ready to take out his annoyance on the first person who irritated him.

* * *

Ugh, that was so cheesy! D: I hated the last part of this chapter. (I feel like I completely butchered poor Sasori, here…)

I hope the part with her parents didn't seem too out of place; I just wanted to show that they missed her, and were avidly looking for her.

Wow, this chapter doesn't have any scenes from Aoi's perspective, XD. Whoops… (She will star in the next chapter, though…)

Pfft, Deidara is such a perv, here, XD. He's also getting more and more suspicious of 'Tobi'. Once again, I wanted to portray his overconfident and cocky attitude in some of this chapter.

Haha, people crack their neck and joints a lot in this chapter, XD. (I am an avid fan of cracking my joints [it relaxes me].)

Once again, I hope that Sasori wasn't too OOC, here. (Ugh, I rewrote the last scene with him and Aoi so many times, and it still seems off, to me…)

I almost wanted to explain the entire dissection scene, but I didn't, since I figured it would be boring, XD.

I hope this chapter wasn't too bad…

The next one will also advance the plot, more. (This one seemed to be a bit filler-ish…)


End file.
